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I just upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10. I would like to create a new local admin and remove the administrator privileges from my main user. I created the new user but when I try to login I get the following error.

"The User Profile Service service failed the sign-in." "User profile can not be loaded"

I do not see a folder for that user in c:\Users or a profile entry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

Nothing is jumping out at me in the event log either.

I created the user with the following steps.

  1. Setting
  2. Accounts,
  3. Family & other users
  4. Other users
  5. "Add someone else to this PC"
  6. "The person I want to add doesn't have an email address"
  7. "Add a user without a Microsoft account"
  8. Enter the user name and password
  9. Click next.

At this point I have a new (non administrator) user listed in the "Other users" list but can not login as that user. I tried making that user an administrator and that did not help. I have tried creating several new users and none of them work.

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4
  • 1
    I just installed it yesterday and created a local user without any email address so it's possible, just look carefully on the options
    – emirjonb
    Jul 30, 2015 at 8:48
  • 3
    "Try harder." Excellent response. Why don't you go ahead and post that as an answer so more people can see it?
    – Parker Kemp
    Aug 1, 2015 at 22:56
  • I have the same issue. The account is created in the password database, but there is no home folder or registry settings, which is probably the cause of the profile service failure.
    – david25272
    Oct 25, 2015 at 8:35
  • Making a new copy of the default user profile work for me. See link
    – david25272
    Oct 27, 2015 at 22:35

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
13

You might have a corrupt Default profile. (This can apparently occur when upgrading to Windows 10.)

When logging in for the first time with a new user, the Default profile is copied to create the profile for the new user. If it's corrupt, this can cause the login to fail for the new user.

Try the following steps:

  • Take a zip of C:\Users\Default from a Windows 10 installation that doesn't have this problem
  • Rename C:\Users\Default on the Windows 10 install that is having problems, to Default.Old
  • Unzip the non-corrupt Default profile into C:\Users

Now try again.

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8
  • I suspect that this is the answer, but I haven't had a chance to try it yet.
    – JonDrnek
    Jan 26, 2016 at 13:31
  • 1
    Just wanted to say that this solution worked for me
    – Gunnm
    Feb 8, 2016 at 12:48
  • What if you do not have access to another windows 10 box? can you just copy an existing user's profile?
    – dfrankow
    Dec 17, 2016 at 1:46
  • Also, I can't remove the existing Default folder, it won't let me.
    – dfrankow
    Dec 17, 2016 at 1:47
  • Worked for me as well
    – Daniel Wardin
    Jan 6, 2017 at 10:34

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