Windows is a wonderful operating system, and many of us can agree with that. However, there might come a time when to fix some problems, we have to delete the User Profile to set things straight again. Now, many might be wondering, how can this be done. Well, we’ve got your back on this.
First, we must explain what a User Profile is before moving forward. You see, a user profile is a set of files and folders that store all the personal data of the administrator of the operating system, or any user for that matter. The primary reason for the user profile is to create a personalized environment with a ton of individual options for the end-user. Should the User Profile ever experience corruption, then several aspects of Windows 11/10 will cease to work properly.
This is where we will need to delete the profile without ever having to remove the primary account. It works quite well in many instances, and as such, it is one of the first steps to take when wanting to fix problems with Windows 11/10. It should be noted that before making any attempt to delete the user profile, one must make sure it has account privileges, or it won’t work.
How to delete User Profile in Windows 11/10
Knowing how to get rid of the User Profile is very important, as stated above. As such, you should read the following methods carefully:
- Delete User Profile using Advanced System Properties
- Delete the User Profile via Registry Editor
Lets us see this in more detail.
1] Delete User Profile using Advanced System Management
The first step here is to open the Run dialog box by pressing the Windows key + R on your keyboard. From there, type the following in the box, then hit the Enter key:
SystemPropertiesAdvanced
Right away, System Properties box should open with all the options available right at your fingertips.
You will want to click on the button that says Settings under the User Profile section.
After that, select the correct profile, then click on Delete.
Confirm the deletion, and that will be that.
RELATED: Profile not deleted completely, Error – The directory is not empty.
2] Delete the User Profile via Registry Editor
Open the File Explorer, and navigate to C:\Users, and from there, search for the username folder you want gone and delete it.
Now you have to use Registry Editor to remove the appropriate User name keys from the following registry key.
Navigate to the following path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
Expand ProfileList. Click on each of the sub-folders till you come across one that has ProfileImagePath directed to the profile name that you want to delete.
The final step, then, is to delete this sub-folder, and that should complete the entire thing.
TIP: This Technet post lists the values of the subkeys under ProfileList key for each user in the Windows Registry.
How to delete ALL User Profiles in Windows?
If you want to delete all the User Profiles, then you can simply remove the Windows\Profiles folder from Explorer and then delete the entire ProfileList folder from the Registry.
Read: How to delete old User profiles and files automatically in Windows
How to delete Domain Profile in Windows?
To fully delete a domain profile on a Windows 11/10, you can use either of the methods – Via User Profiles settings in System Properties or Via File Explorer and Windows Registry.
I hope this helps you.
Related: How to recover deleted User account profile in Windows.