Corrupt user profile

One of our computers has a corrupted user profile. The only issue seems to be the inability to choose any sort of a desktop background beyond the very simple ones such as coffeebean. Minor, but annoying, and possibly indicative of some bigger issue. So I attempted to create a new user profile and copy the files from the corrupted profile to the new one via the instructions from Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151

But the problem is persisting even with the new profile. Other users can log on to this computer and change the background to whatever they want with no problem. I'm sure by copying the files from the corrupt profile, I copied the corrupt file too. I'm not sure which file it might be though and so I don't know which file NOT to copy, beyond what is mentioned in the Microsoft article. Any help in figuring this out would be greatly appreciated!

 

What OS?

In that profile, I'd try a system file check, but need the OS to be sure it is run right. :wave:wave

 

Thanks for responding...it's running XP Pro with Service Pack 3.

 

And was the new user account okay until you followed those MS directions? So if you create a new account now, name test1 or something, can you change the desktop to anything you want? If it is okay before copying those files, run a malware scan on the bad account;
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

You seem to have multiple accounts, are they administrative or limited privileges? Any other issues whatsoever with this account?

 

I'm not sure if the new account was okay or not as I didn't test it, I just followed the MS directions. I'll create a new account now like you suggested and test it to see. I'll also run a scan and let you know if it comes up with anything.

Yes, the other accounts are adminitrative.

 

FYI,

If you read around here a little bit you will see it is a bad idea to have more than one admin account on a machine, this can really botch things up as the various admins are all making their system changes. Really bad idea.
Also, it you ever get malware, you will have to run the entire scans on each account.
That said, I've seen this a lot, you're not unique, (well, I'm sure YOU are unique, just not your computer practices). Might be something to consider changing. I think it is even possible to be causing this problem, but I'm way open to second opinions on that. :wave:wave:wave

 

Thanks for the advice...I'll look into changing that once I get this issue figured out. Speaking of which, I've been temporarily pulled off this to work on a different issue, so it may be an hour or so before I get back to this one. I'll post the scan results as soon as I can. Thanks for helping me out!