# "preparing your desktop" continuous loop



## mrl325i (May 9, 2008)

Hello. My Dell laptop froze the other day while using Word. I shut it down (via Start, etc.) and when I rebooted the Windows screen said "Preparing your desktop" and then a totally new desktop came up and my icons, defaults, etc seemed to be all back to the factory defaults. If I look in C:/users I see my files and stuff still there but I am not able to restore the pc to its previous state. I tried "System Restore"and it had no effect -- even running it in safe mode. 

Also, if I make some changes -- like making Firefox the default browser -- when I reboot the machine again it just reverts back to the "preparing your desktop" routine and resets everything.

Dell has been no help and I cannot find anything on the Microsoft boards. Help! Thanks.


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## frank200 (Apr 2, 2008)

When you login to your user account do you see your desktop icons in c:\users\your user account\desktop. You have not specified this in your post all you said was you can see your user data.


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## mrl325i (May 9, 2008)

frank200 said:


> When you login to your user account do you see your desktop icons in c:\users\your user account\desktop. You have not specified this in your post all you said was you can see your user data.


Yes, they are there.


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## kinbard (Jul 1, 2006)

Might be a corrupted profile. I would be lazy and create a folder on the root of c:, move all your files you want to keep into it, log in as admin and delete the profile, then recreate it.


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## frank200 (Apr 2, 2008)

Sounds as though you are logging in as if a new user every time. Check whic actual username and profile you are under at an elevated command prompt by typing in SET as follows:


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## mrl325i (May 9, 2008)

frank200 said:


> Sounds as though you are logging in as if a new user every time. Check whic actual username and profile you are under at an elevated command prompt by typing in SET as follows:
> 
> View attachment 27767


Frank: Thank you.

I rebooted, hit F8, and booted to safe mode with command prompt. At Set, I see the screen that you posted. The following info is interesting:

Homepath=\Users\Temp
LocalAppData=C:Users\Temp\AppData\Local

Temp=C:\Users\Temp\AppData\Local\Temp
TMP=C:\Users\Temp\AppData\Local\Temp

Username=MMM (this would seem to be correct)
USERPROFILE=C:\Users\Temp (this does not seem correct)


The username on this laptop, or the administrator, is MMM, and that is not showing up in the same places that I see your name in the SET screen.

Can you suggest a solution?

Mark


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## frank200 (Apr 2, 2008)

Something is corrupted as you login to your user account. The culprit may be Winlogon.exe but there is no way to be sure. Even though you login to the correct user account your system variables are being set as though your username is TEMP. This could be a virus that has infected your computer. There is no way of knowing for sure.

I am assuming Winlogon.exe because that is the module which prompts you for username an password and therefore likely to set those system variables that you are looking at. I can't guarantee a solution but you can try a few things.

To check the integrity of that module only do this at an elevated command prompt:

SFC /SCANFILE=c:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WINLOGON.EXE

If it finds it corrupted from a virus or whatever you may be in luck and that may be all you need to do. If not , you may have other system files which are corrupted in which case do a full system scan:

SFC \ SCANNOW

Another thing you can do is to set the variables on your own but you would have to do all of them:

At an elevated command prompt:

SET HOMEPATH=\USERS\MMM

.
.
.
SET USERPROFILE=C:\USERS\MMM

and then logoff then log back on (do not reboot just logoff).

Did you have a user named temp at one time on your computer? If not then check to see if there is a C:\users\temp folder and if so delete it.


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## mrl325i (May 9, 2008)

SFC /SCANFILE=c:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WINLOGON.EXE

said "windows resourse protection did not find any integrity violations.

Running scannow now.


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## mrl325i (May 9, 2008)

After scannow it says:

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log

Now what?


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## frank200 (Apr 2, 2008)

Sometime between logging in and preparation of desktop your are being hijacked and the username is being changed to temp. Since a temp folder doesn't exist it is assuming you are a new user and hence it prepares a new desktop and new user defaults just as it would for a new user.

Now we checked for corruption in the system with SFC so the only other thing possible from this section of the forum would be to disable your startup items in case a rogue process has attached itself.

Type MSCONFIG in the search area of the start menu. It will appear at the top. Click it. Then click the startup tab. Click disable all. Then reboot.

Of course you know that arepair or clean install of Vista is always an option.


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## mrl325i (May 9, 2008)

frank200 said:


> Sometime between logging in and preparation of desktop your are being hijacked and the username is being changed to temp. Since a temp folder doesn't exist it is assuming you are a new user and hence it prepares a new desktop and new user defaults just as it would for a new user.
> 
> Now we checked for corruption in the system with SFC so the only other thing possible from this section of the forum would be to disable your startup items in case a rogue process has attached itself.
> 
> ...


Thanks again, Frank.

I am attempting to delete the directory users/temp (there is more than one, all dated from the day this started) but it hangs. How can I do it from the command prompt?

I have restarted the pc after disabling the startup files but still have to delete the corrupt (I think) temp files.


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## mrl325i (May 9, 2008)

frank200 said:


> Another thing you can do is to set the variables on your own but you would have to do all of them:
> 
> At an elevated command prompt:
> 
> ...


How do I do this?


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## frank200 (Apr 2, 2008)

Here is a way to get your desktop back:

Open an elevated command prompt

Right click the tak bar and select task manager

Terminate the process explorer.exe

At a command prompt type

SET USERPROFILE=C:\USERS\MMM

Then type

EXPLORER.EXE


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## p_alpha627 (Sep 6, 2008)

I had the same problem. The solution posted by frank200 solved my problem.



frank200 said:


> Open an elevated command prompt
> 
> Right click the tak bar and select task manager
> 
> ...


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## KtarzanOB (May 5, 2009)

Just had this problem and tried the what was suggested which brought back my desktop. But when i restart i get same problem, and have to follow the steps below everytime. Is there something i am missing or do i just have to backup everything i need and reinstall vista??



> Originally Posted by frank200 View Post
> 
> Open an elevated command prompt
> 
> ...


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

Hi,when you jump into another thread with a similar problem you can get confused, always best to create your own thread. Now the command

" SET USERPROFILE=C:\USERS\MMM" is written for this user, you would need to substitute your "user" name for MMM, example mine is "Paul".


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## jwoods044 (Jun 9, 2009)

Hi there, a friend of mine is having the same problem, he's using a Toshiba labtop, running windows vista. We followed the following instructions;



frank200 said:


> Here is a way to get your desktop back:
> 
> Open an elevated command prompt
> 
> ...


We substituted his username for "MMM" and it worked, until he restarted the computer and it went back to the temp profile.

Also, when starting/restarting his laptop it takes alot longer to load.

Please help!


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## KtarzanOB (May 5, 2009)

yeh when i restarted had same problem. What i done in the end was created a new user profile with admin rights and transferred all the files i wanted to the new account, then i deleted the corrupted account. It didnt take long. gl.


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## Byteman3D (Jun 16, 2009)

*I had it while cloning my harddrive*

I had some problems with my 500 gb Seagate drive and before bringing it to service, I wanted to clone the disk to a spare disk to go on working while it's at the service facility.

I used Seagate DiscWizard. 500gb disk was drive C: and the spare disk -which was a 120 gb Seagate was drive E: during cloning. 

Cloning seemed successful, but as I start to run Vista from the cloned 120 gb, it starts preparing desktop and can not prepare a thing even after 17 hours. Ctrl+Alt+Del brings up the vista menu and I can only run task manager there. (I can't login as admin or anything else. I guess I don't even have an administrator account. Only my user account is loggable. If I run a new task (explorer) I see a brand new desktop saying it's temporary and will be lost in the next login. 
Anyway after I see that desktop, I look at my computer and see that system disk is drive E: and there is no drive C: 
All SET parameters are directed to drive E: 
There is a noticable difference in any explorer window: Each disk or folder has a checkbox next to it It can be checked. But for what ? I don't know.

All the folders seem in place. My desktop is in E:\users\Nezih\Desktop and files are intact. But they don'T show up. 

I connected another Vista system disk from another computer of mine and it boots up as drive C: perfectly with its own desktop. (Only some hardware are not recognized naturally, but it works)

If I could reclone this disk to a drive C: I believe it would miraculously start running. 

Do you have any ideas?


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## NTA (Nov 2, 2009)

i am also having this same problem but moine looks kinda different lol
the top that looks kinda whited out: i didnt do that >.>


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi this may help some of you http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Fix-a-corrupted-user-profile please take note of what Jenae has already mentioned and start your own threads it is not nice to hijack another thread and you may make your own situation worse by following advice not specific to you


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## shortie30 (Feb 24, 2010)

ok so i have a issue... i did everything up to this point

SET HOMEPATH=\USERS\MMM

.
.
.
SET USERPROFILE=C:\USERS\MMM

and then logoff then log back on (do not reboot just logoff).

Did you have a user named temp at one time on your computer? If not then check to see if there is a C:\users\temp folder and if so delete it.


i did all this and now when i go to logon it tells me this "the user profile service failed the logon... 

so now i cannot login to the admin account...is there a way i can get back into the account now that the profile will not load


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## ggustaf (May 26, 2010)

Clonezilla was used to make a clone of my Vista boot disk, 96GB used, rest free. A fix for the "preparing your desktop" annoyance is described below.
Also described is a fix for the "Vista does not boot" annoyance.

Boot of the clone failed. But the Vista install CD, REPAIR mode selected, offered to fix the problem and restart. Did that, and Vista went through its boot steps.

NOTE: The step to fix the clone with the Vista install CD is necessary. This
is the surest way to repair the boot problem. The clone disk must be
the only changed hardware on the machine for this to succeed.

After boot worked, the "preparing your desktop" message appeared and it looked like Vista was hung. Not true. Press ctrl-alt-delete to get the task manager. Then add the task "explorer" and you will get a START button and the possibility to run programs, by double-clicking in explorer.

The boot disk showed as E: instead of C:, which was the real signal that devices were assigned incorrectly. Still running crippled Vista desktop, I
double-clicked in explorer on c:\windows\regedit and then deleted all keys but "default" in HKLM\system\mounteddevices\. Closed regedit, rebooted Vista. There were a lot of keys. Fear not.

On reboot, which was a little slower, Vista fixed the rest of the drive map problems, and I ended up with the correct desktop, all features of the original system found in the clone, and no apparent problems [yet!].

Microsoft has documented how to do this, more carefully, but you will note that the effect of their edits is to delete a key entry in HKLM\system\mounteddevices\.

How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188

Exactly why does clonezilla produce a clone disk with these errors? Maybe it was the method, to copy partition-to-partition in one step, from drive C: to external drive E: [which would explain why Vista reported E:instead of C:].

A different way to make the clone is to save an image, then put the new disk into drive C: [remove the original from C:] and let clonezilla restore C: from the image. Could this method be a work-around for the drive E: trouble?


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