Table of Contents

Overview....................................................................................................................................5
Overview

This is a procedure for moving user profiles for users logging on to the new domain with a
new account.

When you copy user data into a new profile, the new profile becomes a near duplicate of the
old profile, and contains the same preferences, appearance, and documents as the old profile.
The methods that are described here may not transfer the Outlook Express e-mail messages
and address user data that are associated with the user profile where you are transferring data
from. When you delete the old profile, you may delete that data if it you do not first transfer it
by using other methods.

Suppose UserOLD once used a local account to log on to a machine named Computer1, and
he'll now use a different domain account (UserNEW) to log on. Here's how to move his
profile with different methods. We recommend the second method to be used for moving the
profiles.

Method 1

1. Log on to Computer1 as UserNEW. Log off.

2. Log on as a user other than the user whose profile you are copying files to or from.
3. In Windows Explorer, click Tools, click Folder Options, click the View tab, click
Show hidden files and folders, click to clear the Hide protected operating system
files check box, and then click OK.
4. Locate the C:\Documents and Settings\UserOLD folder, where C is the drive on
which Windows XP is installed, and UserOLD is the name of the profile you want to
copy user data from.
5. Press and hold down the CTRL key while you click each file and subfolder in this
folder, except the following files: Ntuser.dat, Ntuser.dat.log, Ntuser.ini.
6. On the Edit menu, click Copy.
7. Locate the C:\Documents and Settings\UserNEW folder, where C is the drive on
which Windows XP is installed, and UserNEW is the name of the new domain user
profile.
8. On the Edit menu, click Paste.
9. Log off the computer, and then log on as the new user.
10. You must import your e-mail messages and addresses to the new user profile before
you delete the old profile.

Method 2
1. Log on as UserOLD.
2. Obtain the %USERPROFILE% environment variable which identifies the location
of UserOLD's profile. To obtain it, click Start, click Run, type cmd and click Ok then
type set and click Enter. (You must log on as UserOLD for this method to work.)
a. If you cannot log on as UserOLD, alternatively, look in the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\SID\ProfileImagePath subkey, where SID is
UserOLD's SID. If you need to determine which SID is UserOLD's, use
GetSID, which you can download from
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/tools/default.asp.
b. In UserOLD's case, you would type: getsid \\Computer1
UserOLD \\Computer1 UserOLD.
c. Now you have the SID and therefore the correct registry subkey.
d. Log on as UserNEW, then log off.
e. Log back on to the system as a local administrator, and use GetSID to find
UserNEW's new SID.
3. Log on as a user other than the user whose profile you are copying files to or from (a
user with administrative permissions).
4. Make a backup of the UserOLD profile located in C:\Documents and
Settings\UserOLD folder, where C is the drive on which Windows XP is installed, and
UserOLD is the name of the profile you want to copy user data from.
5. In Windows Explorer, click Tools, click Folder Options, click the View tab, click
Show hidden files and folders, click to clear the Hide protected operating system
files check box, and then click OK.
6. Move the computer to the new domain and also change the DNS settings.
7. Log on to Computer1 as UserNEW. Log off.
8. Open UserNEW's folder in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList. Double-click the ProfileImagePath subkey and replace
its contents with \%systemdrive%\documents and settings\UserOLD.
9. Close your registry editor.
10. To fix the file and directory permissions, right-click the UserOLD directory and
choose Properties.
11. On the Security tab, add a permission for UserNEW in the typical way: Click the Add
button, then choose the UserNEW account.
12. Back on the Security tab, give UserNEW full control by clicking the box under Allow
next to Full Control.
13. Close the dialog boxes.
14. Start up regedt32 (in Win2K or NT) or regedit (in Windows Server 2003 or XP).
15. Navigate to the HKEY_USERS hive. In regedt32, click Registry, Load Hive; in
regedit, click File, Load Hive.
16. In the Load Hive dialog box, navigate to C:\documents and settings\UserOLD. Inside
that folder, select ntuser.dat and click OK.
17. A second Load Hive dialog box asks you to fill in a Key Name text field. Enter
UserNEW and click OK.
18. On your registry editor's main screen, open the HKEY_USERS hive.
19. In regedt32, click the UserOLD folder and choose Security, Permissions; in regedit,
right-click the UserOLD folder and choose Permissions.
20. Click Add and add a new permission entry for UserNEW. Click OK to return to the
Permissions for dialog box.
21. Give UserNEW full control over his registry subkeys by clicking the box under Allow
next to Full Control, then click OK to return to the registry editor's main screen.
22. Now that you're finished with the modifications, you need to write the changes back to
the file.
23. To do so, click the HKEY_USERS\UserOLD folder. In regedt32, click Registry,
Unload Hive; in regedit, select File, Unload Hive.
24. Choose Yes to confirm the action. Exit your registry editor.
25. Try logging on as UserNEW. You might get an error message stating that the system is
unable to access an .inf file, but you'll receive this error message only once.
26. The preceding process moves desktop settings, preferences, IE Favorites and cookies,
Outlook Express settings and mail, and so on.
27. The solution isn't perfect—for example, it does not transfer all your Outlook
Express/Outlook passwords. However, it's a fairly complete way to move a profile or
load one from a backup. Please enter the password for your e-mail account again.
28. Log off the computer, and then log on as the new user.