How can I delete a user's personal files and settings, but keep the user account in Active Directory?

Question

I want a fresh start. I want my Windows and all applications to be like I am for the first time ever logging in. So I want all my personal settings gone.

I have a user account on Windows Small Business Server 2003 for which I am the administrator. This account I want to keep, because it has e-mail in exchange.

All my documents are stored elsewhere, not in my account's profile folder.

The profile folder on the Server is not accessible, access is denied.

My questions:

• Is this something which is done often / recommended?
• If I remove all files on the client in my user folder, will this be permanently synched to the server?
• Alternatively, I count recreate the user account and re-import all e-mail in the exchange store, but I do not know if that new user will be the "same" user.
• Or is there a better way?

Answer 1

The solution is to delete your user profile.

To do so, you need to login with another user account that has administrative privileges. You can create a temporary account and wipe it out later.

Do the following:

1. Move the contents inside your My Documents folder (or at least those that you don't want harmed) elsewhere.
2. Log out of the account whose profile you are about to delete. Log out on all systems.
3. Log in with the secondary/temporary admin account.
4. Right-click on Computer icon and choose Properties. This should open the System Properties dialog box.
5. Select Advanced tab.
6. In the User Profiles section, click on Settings button.
7. Choose the profile you'd like to delete and select Delete.
8. Cleanup what is left of the profile both on the local computer and the server.

The profile folder on the Server is not accessible, access is denied.

Use this temporary/secondary admin account to take over its ownership, change its NTFS permissions to facilitate access and delete its contents (exactly in this order).