I don't even know how this one happened. I got an error message while booting up saying that there was a problem with my user profile and it was putting me on a temporary one while I figured it out. I shut down and rebooted to see if it happened again, and now it has my user profile up, but all settings and documents are limited to "Shared" ones. I still have administrative power and it shows as my user profile, but I can't access any of my documents, and all settings have reverted to factory default, including the disappearance of a number of programs. I searched, they still exist, I just can't access them. I've never created any other user profiles on this computer, it still shows that profile as having the same name, but it's not connecting it with the settings from that profile name in Documents and Settings. Is there a way to get my user settings, programs, etc, back?1 person needs an answerI do too

Your user profile has become corrupted. Usually this means you'll need to create a new user account and copy the data from the old one to it. You've been put into a temporary user account, which doesn't have the privileges you need to do this. Hopefully you don't have XP Pro/Media Center and weren't using the built-in Administrator account for your daily work. Your situation illustrates exactly why this isn't a good idea. If you have XP Home, log into the normally hidden built-in Administrator account. The first thing to try is a System Restore to a date when things worked. This may fix your old user account. If it does, you're finished. You say you only have one user account but if you have XP Pro/Media Center and weren't using the built-in Administrator (i.e., you made your own user account), the built-in Administrator will have become hidden when a second administrative user was created. To access the built-in Administrator account in XP Home, boot the computer into Safe Mode. Do this by repeatedly tapping the F8 key as the computer is starting up. This will get you to the right menu. Navigate using your Up arrow key; the mouse will not work here. Once in Safe Mode, you will see the normally hidden Administrator account. The default password is a blank. In XP Pro, you do not need to go into Safe Mode. At the Welcome Screen, do Ctrl-Alt-Del twice to get the classic Windows logon box. Type in "Administrator" and whatever password you assigned when you set up Windows. If a System Restore doesn't work, you'll need to create a new user account for yourself. Log into the new user account and use Explorer (My Computer) to navigate to the old user account and copy your data - not the settings, which are probably also corrupt - to the new account. If you get an "Access Denied" error because you made your old account's files Private, you can take ownership of the files. Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP [Q308421] - http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421 How Do I Get the Security tab in Folder Properties? - http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_security_tab.htm If you have XP Pro/Media Center and the built-in Administrator is truly the only account on the system, you may still be able to run a System Restore from your temporary account. It is worth a try. If it won't run or doesn't solve the issue, then back up your data if you didn't already do this by booting the computer with a Linux Live CD such as Knoppix or a Bart's PE and copying the files to an external hard drive. Then you can try a Repair Install. If the Repair Install doesn't work, test at least the hard drive and RAM to make sure they are sound before doing a Clean Install of Windows. There is no point in applying software solutions if the problem was caused by failing hardware. In either case, make an extra administrative user account to be used in future emergencies. http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot http://www.knoppix.net http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ - Bart's PE Builder http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm - Repair Install How-To http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows - What you will need on-hand MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!