How do I delete a user profile on a Windows 7 machine that is part of a domain?

Question

How can I delete the local user profile on a Windows 7 machine that is connected to a Windows Server 2008 domain?

DelProf doesn't seem to exist on Windows 7.

Answer 1

You can do it with the User Profiles dialog in System Properties:

• Properites for Computer
• Advanced system settings (on the left side)
• Settings for User Profiles (in the middle)
• Select the profile you want to delete and click the delete button

Answer 2

To clear user local profile via registry:

1. Press on Start > Run >Regedit

2. Navigate to the following registry key :“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList”

3. Under ProfileList navigate to binary key’s like this: S-1-5-21-3656904587-1668747452-4095529-500

4. On the right side under ProfileImagePath you'll see the username and profile path.

5. Chose the one with the desired user and delete the long registry key like: “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList”

Answer 3

I have developed an inofficial successor to Microsoft's Delprof called Delprof2. It is syntax compatible to the original but more powerful. You can find more information here:

http://helgeklein.com/free-tools/delprof2-user-profile-deletion-tool/

Answer 4

Sometimes this profile does not delete (when using Microsoft's best practices technique of going into:

Properites for Computer Advanced system settings (on the left side) Settings for User Profiles (in the middle) Select the profile you want to delete and click the delete button

It will often kick back an error to the effect that the profile wasn't completely deleted because it requires permissions from the SYSTEM. This happens even if trying to delete from the built-in administrator (local machine admin profile). When I go back to the user profile (still existing on the C:\ drive) I note that the only thing there is the App Data folder with its system configurations. How do we get rid of this?