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#910
You are welcome.
In fact, your post gave me a lot to think. I might end up posting a big, red warning in tutorial for Method Two, telling users not to use it on an existing installation if it was not clean installed by user herself / himself, or if machine in question is not "white listed" (example, although I am not a fan of preinstalled operating systems I have tested Method Two on two Asus laptops, both without any whatsoever issues).
Using Sysprep to relocate the main profile folder Users works perfectly on each and every clean install (Method One in this tutorial). It also works perfectly on an existing system (Method Two) every time that system, Windows, was originally clean installed, and again works perfectly on those pre-installed Windows systems that have no or very few obtrusive unattended setup and other files in place which will be run every time Windows goes to setup (OOBE), as is the case when Sysprep is run.
If you read this thread through, most issues have been caused by user and resolved. Those few being not resolved are OEM systems and Method Two. Not a fact, just a gut feeling I have based on my own experience is that Dell & HP are the most difficult ones. They have system full of bloatware, unattended answer files and setup scripts all over the system.
I must think this a bit, what kind of warning I should post. In the mean time, my previous reply to you basically said what I have to say.
Take care :)
Kari
Let me put it differently. I did activate the Admin account without any issue. When I was sending my very first post asking for help, I couldn't log into the Admin account after activation: the screen was pitch black where the only thing visible was the mouse icon. After multiple tries, the Admin account was finally accessible when I log into it. However, the start menu and the Search lost their functionality. I'm quoting Bree "Any account, from the Administrator to a standard user, creates its profile at the first log in. This is based on the default profile, and it seems that it's this that may have a problem. I suspect if you were to try creating a standard user it too would not work." So I tried to create a standard account to verify if she was right. See pictures below.
So Bree was right. I can't create a standard user. I remembered that in the process of User Folder Relocation video, we are supposed to deactivate the current user before running sysprep and after we need to create a dummy account to proceed. Since I can't create a standard user account, I'm afraid to deactivate my current account and proceed with the relocation process. Let me know if you need more details or more explicit explanation. Thank you.
Astyx, I am by no means an expert. However, I did recently experience some problems with the Start menu in Windows 10. After researching the issue a bit, it became clear that this is not an uncommon problem in Windows 10. My sense is that a number of things can corrupt either the TileDataLayer folder in users/username/AppData/Local which seems to control this functionality or other files that control this functionality. I have personally seen situations where this functionality is lost for some users, but not others. I wonder if your Administrative account has these files corrupted totally separate and apart from this process. By the way, there are several different potential fixes, but in some cases none of them work, and you are forced to reinstall Windows or try to restore to an earlier configuration. I had to use restore to regain the start menu functionality.
Oh this will be a long post!
There are two kinds of posts here on Ten Forums that I really hate to reply, from theheart of my bottombottom of my heart: First, those posted by members I know already when replying (from past experience) that they do not tolerate being publicly corrected, shown to be wrong, that for them it is more important not to be corrected and leave false information as is, than to let it be corrected so other users would not get wrong information. In this category I have multiple examples but to not name any fellow members, let's say I am still almost after a year waiting a screenshot of a strange hybrid user account nobody else has ever seen, and apologies for the insults I got when I told such an account does not exist, or correcting peoples misconceptions on subject of digital entitlement and digital Windows licenses. And so on.
Your post represents that other post type I hate to reply although I know that sometimes I have to, posts from members who go somewhat beyond their knowledge level, thinking the instructions or a told procedures fail, interrupting told chronological flow of actions they are told to follow, when in fact the mistakes done are mostly those by the user.
Do not take this too personally. I feel responsible for my few tutorials, I feel that I have to reply even when I might be forced to formulate my reply so that my good intentions, positive motives and willingness to assist is taken by the OP as an insult.
OK, let's start. First, when Sysprep is run it is kind of "mini repair install". It forces Windows to go through so called OOBE mode, also known as Welcome Mode. IF you have any issues with user profile service, Sysprep in most cases fixes it forcing Windows to set itself up again.
Second, deactivating a user account is never an issue; as long as you can boot to Windows you can always reactivate it.
Third, in no way does this tutorial or embedded videos tell to do anything else when signed in with built-in admin than deactivate existing user accounts and run Sysprep. I just can't get it, why didn't you simply follow the instructions when you managed to sign in to built-in admin?
Fourth, when failed to sign in to built-in admin first time, how long did you wait? I've timed that quite often, on mid level i5 Asus laptop it could for instance take up to seven minutes when the built-in admin account has been activated and signed in first time. Most of that time you'll only see a black screen.
Did you really wait long enough, or did you do something not too clever which might cause corruption like forcing your computer to restart with hard reset, not patient enough to wait a minute or two more? Were you absolutely sure that signing in was not going to work?
I could go on but I think I already said the important stuff.
My sincere, profoundly honest recommendation to you is to forget this procedure. Let your Users folder stay on C: drive.
Kari