A Corrupt Profile in Windows 11/10: How to Fix It?

In Windows 11/10, your user profile is stored in the user's profile folder, which contains various settings such as sounds, screensavers, desktop backgrounds, taskbar preferences, and personal folders. All these settings ensure that your personal preferences are used when you log on to Windows so that your PC appears and works the way you want it to. If the profile is corrupted, you may lose your settings. In addition, you will receive an error message that prevents you from logging into your user account, which can be very frustrating. I will list the causes of this problem and how to fix a corrupt user profile in Windows 11/10.

Part 1: Why user profiles are corrupted in Windows 11/10?

Corrupt profile registry entries.

Failed Windows Updates.

Corrupted system or user files.

Corrupted user account active directory.

Damaged hard drive file system due to power failure, and disk write error.

Failed automatic Windows updates involving installing or upgrading service packs or other critical system files for updating user profiles.

Part 2: How to fix a corrupt profile in windows 11/10?

Way 1: Via Registry Editor

Step 1: Use the shortcut keys Win+R to open the Run dialog box, type Regedit, and click ok to open the registry.

Step 2: Locate the following path in the left sidebar of the Registry Editor.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/WindowsNT/CurrentVersion/ProfileList

.

Step 3: Open the ProfileList folder and you would see folders beginning with S-1-5. These folders represent a single user profile or user account that has been created on your computer.

Step 4: Identify the correct S-1-5 folder for the corrupt user profile. This can be done by clicking on each S-1-5 folder and viewing the "Value Data" column of the ProfileImagePath entry.

Step 5: Once you have identified the correct S-1-5 folder, double click on the "RefCount" to enter and change its value data to 0, then click on OK.

Step 6: Double click on the "status" entry, then change its "value data" to 0 and click on OK.

Step 7: Exit Registry Editor and restart your computer to see if the corrupted user profile for Windows 11/10 still exists.

Way 2: Via Command Prompt

Step 1: Type CMD in the search box and click on the Run as administrator option.

Step 2: Type "sfc /scannow" and click on Enter. The SFC tool will scan and attempt to repair the corrupted system files automatically.

Step 3: Once the verification is complete, you can check if the corrupted user profile has been repaired.

Way 3: Via Windows PowerShell

Step 1: Search for PowerShell in the search bar and click Run as administrator.

Step 2: Copy the following code into PowerShell and press enter.

        Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers |Where-Object {$_.InstallLocation -like "*SystemApps*"} | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)/AppXManifest.xml"}
        

Step 3: Once the scan is complete, the issue of corrupt user profiles should be resolved.

Way 4: Via creating a new account

Step 1: Search for CMD in the search bar and click Run as administrator.

Step 2: Copy the following command. And then press Enter. When the message "The command completed successfully" appears. Restart your computer.

net user administrator /active:yes

Step 3: Use WIN+I to open windows settings, and click on "accounts".

Step 4: In the left-hand window click on "Family & other users" and in the right-hand window find "Add someone else to this PC" under "Other users". Follow the instructions to create a new user profile.

Step 5: Restart your computer and log in to your administrator account again.

Step 6: Navigate to the corrupted user account (It is on the C disk where you installed Windows, under Users). Copy the contents of it to the new user profile.

Step 7: When you have finished, log out from your admin account and log back into your new account and your data should be transferred.

Way 5: Via checking for windows updates

There may be some users who can simply install the latest version of Windows to fix a corrupt user profile. If there are any Windows updates available, you can install them.

Step 1: Use the shortcut WIN+I to open Windows Settings, and click on Update & Security.

Step 2: Click on the "check for updates" option in Windows Update and if any are available, click on download and follow the on-screen prompts to complete the installation.

Way 6: Via reset this PC

If all the methods above failed to fix a corrupt user profile on Windows 11/10, you may consider resetting this PC. This process will remove all installed applications, but you can choose to keep your personal files intact.

Step 1: Use the shortcut WIN+I to open Windows Settings, and click on Update & Security.

Step 2: Find "Recovery" in the left-hand window and click "Get started" under "Reset this PC" in the right-hand window.

Step 3: You can choose "Keep my files" or "Remove everything" to reset this PC.