Member Avatar for BagelAnne

I did a reinstall of win xp media after backing up files with Ghost.
Now all the user accounts and data are listed in explorer.
Can someone please tell me how to make user profiles for these existing accounts? I would like them to appear on the logon screen.
Thanks!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by caperjack

Dani AI

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Good call, — and well done to for the quick practical fix that worked for you. For anyone who lands here later and wants alternatives or a more "clean" restore (so you avoid file-permission problems or temporary profiles), here are safe, higher‑precision options and cautions.

If you want the system to use an existing profile folder without manual file juggling, associate that folder with the account via the ProfileList registry keys. Backup the registry first, then get the account SID and check ProfileList:

wmic useraccount where name="username" get sid

Open regedit and browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList. For the SID for that user, set ProfileImagePath to the existing profile folder. Export any key before editing. After changing the mapping, correct NTFS ownership/ACLs so the account actually has Full Control of its profile.

If permissions are the issue, change the owner and ACLs from Explorer: right‑click the profile folder, Properties -> Security -> Advanced -> Owner (set to the intended user), then grant Full Control. Make sure hidden files like NTUSER.DAT are present and readable — corruption or denied access there causes Windows to create a temporary profile.

To have accounts appear on the Welcome screen (graphical user list), ensure the Welcome screen is enabled in Control Panel -> User Accounts -> Change the way users log on or off. If you prefer the classic logon screen, users won’t be listed graphically.

Final cautions: always export the registry key before edits, copy profile folders to a backup location first, and test by logging in once as the account. If anything goes wrong, restoring the exported registry key and the backup folders will roll back the change.

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Member Avatar for caperjack

I did a reinstall of win xp media after backing up files with Ghost.
Now all the user accounts and data are listed in explorer.
Can someone please tell me how to make user profiles for these existing accounts? I would like them to appear on the logon screen.
Thanks!

if you only backed up files and did not chost the whole drive ,then i think all you need to do is create new acct for each user in control panel and move said file to each new users mydocument folder via explorer

Member Avatar for BagelAnne

Thanks for the advice.
I was hoping there was an easier way.

Member Avatar for caperjack

Thanks for the advice.
I was hoping there was an easier way.

nothing hard about that ,just go to control panel ,create the new accts ,open each one and go to C:\Documents and Settings\username, them open the folder where there files are and drag and drop the files ,to C:\Documents and Settings\username ! how hard is that

Member Avatar for BagelAnne

You were absolutely correct. It wasn't hard at all.
I did it! Thanks to your help.

Member Avatar for caperjack

You were absolutely correct. It wasn't hard at all.
I did it! Thanks to your help.

good for you ,your welcome

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