Fix: “The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded.”

A client of Intuitive IT was recently trying to log into their computer. It took an excessively long time to login and when it did it seemed to have been reset to default, with all of their custom settings gone. Their e-mail was no longer set up on Outlook Express and the icons on their custom desktop icons had all disappeared as well.

They contacted Intuitive IT with the problem and one of our technicians tried to remotely access their computer, when they were faced with the error message: “The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded.”

The following instructions illustrate how to fix this problem on both the Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems, however the original Microsoft Support page explains another two methods on how to also fix this problem.

1. Click Start

2. In Start Search (Windows Vista) or Search programs and files (Windows 7) area, type in regedit, and press Enter.

3. If prompted by UAC, click Continue (Windows Vista) or Yes (Windows 7).

4. In Registry Editor, go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsNTCurrentVersionProfileList

5. In the left pane look for the folder name starting with S-1-5 (SID key) followed by a long number. Then click each folder and locate ProfileImagePath from the right pane, double click to verify that this is the user account profile that has the error.

If you have two folders starting with S-1-5 followed by same long numbers and one of them ended with .bak. Change the .bak folder to normal one. To do this, follow the steps below:

1. Right click the folder without .bak and select the Rename option. Then add .ba at the end of the folder name.

2. Right click the folder with .bak and select the Rename option. Then remove .bak at the end of the folder name.

3. Right click the folder with .ba and select the Rename option. Then change the .ba to .bak at the end of the folder name.

· If you have only one folder starting with S-1-5 followed by a long numbers and ended with .bak. Right click the folder and select the Rename option. Then remove .bak at the end of the folder name.

7. Select the folder without .bak, in the right pane, double click RefCount and type 0 and then click OK.

 Select the folder without .bak, in the right pane, double click State and type 0 and then click OK.

 

  

8. Close Registry Editor.

9. Restart the computer.

10. Log on again with your account.

This information was originally posted on Microsoft Support.