IT Knowledge Base

In Windows XP you could simply login as administrator and rename the profile folder. As soon as logged back in as this user everything was recreated. In Windows 7 and Vista it doesn’t work like this anymore. If you just delete or rename the profile folder and you try to log back in it is going to create you a temporary profile. To avoid that you need to open the registry.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

Search there for the profile you renamed or deleted and delete the folder. Reboot the computer and it should work again.

It is actually very easy to get Windows 7 GPO Settings on a Windows 2008 Server. You just need to copy the %systemroot%\PolicyDefinitions from your Windows 7 machine into \\YOURSERVER\C$\Windows\SYSVOL\YOURDOMAIN\Policies\PolicyDefinitions on your server. After that you start your policy editor and you will find it under the section administrative templates.

You need to set a registry key to really see all files.

In:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\

Set following DWord:
ShowSuperHidden (1)