Windows 7 - Preparing Your Desktop problem

Started Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit - preparing your desktop was displayed upon bootup (never did before).

Afterwards some my desktop icons were missing, system tray did not fully load, toolbar taskbars missing, gadgets missing,
icons on taskbar blank, profiles were missing for browser, email and financial software.

Quite maddening to say the least!
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Ran system file checker (sfc /scannow command) - did not find any integrity violations.

Opened task manager - looked at processes (only a few showing) - ticked box from all users (many more are displayed?)

Sounds like I am not in correct user profile, however there are only two which includes guest account.

 

What shows in your C:/Users folder. Check and see if there is anything like an old account folder or any of your old data in there.

Also MAYBE a system restore.

I would just restore from last weeks backup XD sorry couldn't resist

But in all seriousness, there's a good chance your old profile is located in the C:/Users folder.

 

Already performed a system restore.

I logged off from the task manager then logged on.
The system tray icons reappeared with the following message:


Also states "preparing your desktop" in safe mode!

Strange folder named UpdatusUser

 

Kinda sounds like you were logged in with a temp profile. Corrupted profile perhaps. Create another user profile and log in with that one to see how it is.

 

Try that, and also, if you can get your hands on a copy of Hiren's Boot CD, then use the Password Changer for Windows XP/Vista/7 and see if - once you navigate to the OS partition - it shows you more users.

You can also open a command prompt and type: net user Administrator /active:yes

Then log off or reboot, and log into the built-in Admin account. If your Windows account is corrupt, you can use that to troubleshoot.

 

Appreciate the assistance - will give it a go.

How does a profile become corrupt in the first place? This laptop is nearly brand new.

 

Many reasons, not necessarily due to age but just Windows in general.

 

Now this all occurred after running laptop on battery. I didn't have any problems prior to running on AC power.

 

Pure coincidence. Not related. It could happen if the laptop didn't shut down properly or unload the profile properly.

 

You're welcome!

How? End-users, that's how.

It could be any number of things. To be honest, I think XP is more stable than 7. Sometimes it's not exactly a mistake the end-user makes though; it's just a bad install(s).

And goofball is correct: the battery would not come into play.

 

I wouldn't expect that the battery had anything to do with it.

Some things I have noticed as well; caught a glimpse of something about Group Policy upon boot up.
Also says shutting down services on shutdown. All of which never appeared before.

Thing with XP though is that it cannot support memory above 4 GB (16 GB in my laptop) and Windows 7 is 64 bit.

I would much prefer XP on my laptop as I'm quite well adapted to it. Windows 7 is somewhat baffling.

 

Windows XP 64-bit will address the 4GB cap (up to 192 GB). I'm not sure how compatibility fares though with the 64-bit XP vs the 32-bit version. But it's still worth looking into.

The group policy notice sounds like you are on a domain. Is your system part of a domain, or is it a workgroup machine?

 

I have it set up on a workgroup for a network.
I was unaware that there is a 64-bit XP OS.

Ever since using the command: net user Administrator /active:yes, it will now logon with the correct settings.
I always however have to reset up cleartype for some reason so it's not all sorted out.

 

XP 64-bit wasn't very good, imo. At the time, too many incompatibilities as it was based on Server so many apps didn't install. Drivers were also very slow to come around. Not sure if going back to XP at this time would work but drivers now would be an issue for newer hardware.

All that command did was enable the Administrator account which is disabled by default as a security measure. I'm guessing you're using that account? I wouldn't recommend you use that account but rather, use another account that has admin privileges if need be, and ensure the administrator account has a very strong password.

 

Yes, and if you decide to do so, you can disable the Administrator account again so that it doesn't reappear at logon. The command is almost identical, except the switch would be: /active:no

 

No, I'm still using the original user account. Getting by for the time being.

Nice to know that I can disable that Administrator account. I was wondering about that.

 

Just a tidbit of knowledge if you are considering Windows XP, support for Windows XP ends on April 8th, 2014. This means that as of that date there will be no new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options or online technical content updates. It is highly advisable not to downgrade from Windows 7 to Windows XP. There is more information available on the End of Support page.

I agree with the consensus that the profile appears to be corrupt. If you continue to experience issues with it, you could attempt a repair of the profile using the steps found here on Microsoft Support. In short form, you create a new user then copy the old profile, minus Ntuser.dat, Ntuser.dat.log, and Ntuser.ini over the new and log in with the new user.

Brandon
Windows Outreach Team- IT Pro
The Springboard Series on TechNet
Windows XP End of Support

 

I just started over onto a new solid state drive.
Found this article about backing up profiles.

 

** SOLVED **
(Pasted from my answer on Tech Net) Hope this helps. -D

I am not sure if your issue was resolved. I was facing a similar issue and it is resolved. Below is was my medicine. Jump to **Solution** if you don't want my background on the problem.
I am an admin in my company and for some reason when we switched to Win 7, I started to see the "Preparing your desktop" this was back in 2012. For whatever reason I was losing my profile every time I logged in. Reformatting my computer, registry fixes, deleting the profile etc did not solve the issue.

**Solution**
What helped: Fast forward to the date 11/24/2013. I was deploying a new PC for a colleague and accidentally logged into his computer using my login name which I had issues. As I was logging in for the first time, I figured it would say that its "preparing my desktop". I really became suddenly obsessed to try to log in again to see what I will find out and to my dismay the same issue repeated. New computer, after so many months and same problem. The first I did was log into my Active directory to examine my user account.
In doing so, I realized I was a member of lots of groups. Well, I said, I don't have to be a group of these Domain Guest Users, and there were several security groups, blindly I removed each one of them, only keeping the Windows 7 security group. Voila! in this process I had cleaned my account of any old security groups. I restarted the new computer, logged in, got the same "Preparing my desktop" wait I said,, let me create some test documents on the desktop,, I have logged in nearly about 10 times, with different scenarios so far, and I am happy to let you all know that my problem has been resolved!
I hope this helps somebody,
D