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I'll try to describe in quick short sentences what happened.

PC (Windows 7 64bit home premium) forces a shut down after starting up from sleep mode (due to the nature of how it went I assume it was malware). Windows unable to boot AT ALL, stuck in an infinite loop of restarting and booting

with the help of F8, entered the repair menu, since safe mode booting wouldn't work either. After 4 hours of letting the systemstart repair tool do its job, I end up with a black screen and mouse cursor only AFTER Windows boots but BEFORE I get to the user profile selection.

Restart again, F8, safe mode still doesn't work, go to the repair mode again and used the command prompt to assign rights via

cacls  D:\Windows\System32  /E  /T  /C  /G everyone:F

that didn't really help, as I still get stuck infront of the user profiles screen, except this time, at least the background is now visible (windows7 standard blue theme). Repeat the cacls command, this time applying it to the entire Windows folder and not only System32

Restart, I can finally access the user profiles, however trying to load into them gets me the error from the title. Trying safemode, something odd happens, instead of booting into the default admin account, I get the user profiles screen from a regular boot, however I can actually enter those accounts!

Did a registry edit, deleted the .bak from the S-I-5 key and set both needed key values back to 0

did a scf /scannow with elevated prompt, nothing found

activated hidden admin account with net user administrator /active:yes I can access this admin account without using safe mode, however still can't access my regular account even after the registry fix

next bummer: while under the hidden admin account, I can't create new user accounts... well they are visibly there, but there are no new registry entries created for them and trying to log into them gets the same User Profile Service error

no malware or viruses were found when using kaspersky virus removal tool, resque cd and malware bytes during scans from inside safe mode (probably deleted the cause while having the hard disk plugged into my laptop to clean it up)

my assumption:

some registry entry or system file keeps me locked out of my regular accounts since trying to login into them just changes the registry entry of said account to .bak again

Recap:

  • cacls to assign rights to the entire Windows folder to everyone:F, can at least boot now
  • sfc /scannow done, nothing found
  • I have no system restore points, else I wouldn't be here :*D
  • multiple chkdsk executions didn't fix anything
  • registry fix for corrupt user profile done, just ends up getting into the "corrupt" state after an unsuccessful login
  • safe mode however lets me pick my "corrupt" profile and boots into it with all files accessible
  • only the hidden admin account which needs to be enabled is able to log in without using safe mode

the problem seems to be so close yet I am running in circles since days and I would like to ask for help before finally giving up and doing a repair install (which hopefully will fix it)

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  • Can you use some punctuation in your post, please, so it would be easier to read?
    – kenorb
    Jun 3, 2015 at 18:57
  • i already wrote in paragraphs and have used more than enough commas to structure the longer sentences, i fail to see why you would have difficulties reading my post. just read the paragraphs as a seperate sentence, i wrote it in "note form" to not create a 100 page novel on purpose...
    – Alex
    Jun 3, 2015 at 19:16

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