User Environment Error

[swiftling88]

i just bought a new computer with winxp, and everything was fine. however, after about three days, this error pops up right before windows logs on:

"User Environment Error -

Windows cannot load the user's profile but has logged you on with the default profile for the system.

DETAIL - The system has attempted to load or restore a file into the registry, but the specified file is not in a registry file format."

i only have one user on this computer. after this occurred, i noticed that windows had automatically created a "Default User" in the C:\Documents and Settings, although the original user's folder was still being used.

nothing else noticeable has occurred and everything is ok, even when i delete the "Default User." but i just want to get rid of the error message, without reinstalling windows (i contacted emachines support and they told me the only way to fix this was to reinstall windows...) any suggestions?

[rangeral]

Log on as the admin, rename old one, make a new one, copy whatever you need over to new name then delete old one see if message disappears after a restart.

[swiftling88]

How do you rename the user account: "Users" from the Control Panel doesn't rename the folder itself... I want to keep the name from the original folder but when I change (from the Control Panel) the name of the original account and then make a new account with the same name as the old account, windows creates a new folder but with an "_2"

It was like this: original account = 'user', renamed to 'computer', new account = 'user', restart, see that 'computer' is using the 'user' folder, and 'user' using a 'user_2' folder. Futhermore, the interface of the new account I created was completely distorted, like it was half classic style and half xp style. (The error was gone when I log onto 'computer' though).

This is all very confusing, and I want the folder to be 'user' and not 'computer.' Don't want that distorted interface either.

When I change everything back to what it was originally, the error message came back again...

Sorry for being so picky, but is there another way (or detail the first)?

[swiftling88]

I'm almost sorry that I didn't learn anything new from this error (like people are supposed to), but another person on another tech forum suggested that I use System Restore to solve my problem. And, lo and behold, it worked. End of story...