Error message: "The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded”, when logging on to Windows 7 or Windows Vista
Method 1: Fix the User Account Profile
To do this, follow the steps below:
Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
How to back up and restore the registry in Windows
- Click Start
- In Start Search (Windows Vista) or Search programs and files (Windows 7) area, type in regedit, and press Enter.
- If prompted by UAC, click Continue (Windows Vista) or Yes (Windows 7).
- In Registry Editor, go to:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
- In the left pane, look for the folder name starting with S-1-5 (SID key) followed by a long number. then click each folder and locate ProfileImagePath from the right pane, double click to verify that this is the user account profile that has the error.
- If you have two folders starting with S-1-5 followed by same long nubmers and one of them ended with .bak. Change the .bak folder to normal one. To do this, follow the steps below:
- Right click the folder without .bak and choose Rename. Then add .ba at the end of the folder name.
- Right click the folder with .bak and choose Rename. Then remove .bak at the end of the folder name.
- Right click the folder with .ba and choose Rename. Then change the .ba to .bak at the end of the folder name.
- Right click the folder without .bak and choose Rename. Then add .ba at the end of the folder name.
- If you have only one folder starting with S-1-5 followed by a long numbers and ended with.bak. Right click the folder and choose Rename. Then remove .bak at the end of the folder name.
- If you have two folders starting with S-1-5 followed by same long nubmers and one of them ended with .bak. Change the .bak folder to normal one. To do this, follow the steps below:
- Choose the folder without .bak, in the right pane, double click RefCount and type 0 and then click OK.
- Choose the folder without .bak, in the right pane, double click State and type 0 and then click OK.
- Close Registry Editor.
- Restart the computer.
- Log on again with your account.
