Summary: This article describes how to associate more than one user account with a single local profile. This is especially useful for portable computer users that have a domain account they use while in the office, but use a local account when they are away from the office.
Steps:
1. Create a local user account on your Windows XP desktop. (Example: username).
2. Next create a domain user account on the Domain controller that the Windows XP desktop is a member of. (Example: username). Remember, the local user can have the same name as the domain account since desktop maintains a local database of users separate from the domain controller.
3. Depending on your environment, you may wish to skip this step. Log into the Windows XP desktop as the local Administrator account. Go into Computer Management->Users and Groups. Add the local account and domain account you created in steps 1 and 2 to the local Administrators group. This allows our users some flexibility in being able to do various things on their desktop.
4. Now log in as the local account you created (tester). This will create the default local profile (username) and adds the path to the ProfileList in the registry. Log off when complete.
5. Now log in as the domain account you created (tester). This will create the default local profile (username.domain) and add the path top the ProfileList in the registry.
6. Depending on your environment, you may wish to skip this step. Before you log off as the domain account, go into System Properties->Advanced->User Profiles. Verify that the domain account profile is set to local and not roaming. If it is set to roaming, you will need to change that to local. Once complete logoff.
7. Reboot the machine. This clears up Windows processes that are still using the .dat files for the accounts we logged in as. Failure to do so might yield errors in latter steps. Specifically: “The file is in use by another process”.
8. Log into the Windows XP desktop as the local Administrator account.
9. Edit the permissions on the profile to enable your domain account to access it. Start Regedt32 and go to HKEY_USERS. With HKEY_USERS selected, click the Load Hive option from the Registry menu. Select the file "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Ntuser.dat, where username is your local account name that we created in step 1.
10. When prompted to enter a key name, type in your user name and press ENTER. You can now see an entry for your user name under HKEY_USERS. Select it and click Permissions from the Security menu. Add your domain account name to the list of permissions, granting the account full control. Click OK when you are finished.
11. To save this change, select your username, and then click Unload Hive from the Registry menu.
12. Next we need to alter the path that points to the profile. In Regedt32, go to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
13. Under this key, you can see a list of Security Identifiers (SIDs). To find the SID corresponding to your new local account, open each key and look at the value for the ProfileImagePath. When you find the value that matches username.domain, modify the ProfileImagePath data so that it points to your local account profile path.
14. Close Rededt32 and log on with your local account. You can see your familiar profile.
15. Reboot the Windows XP desktop.
16. Close Rededt32 and log on with your domain account. You can see your familiar profile.
17. The results from steps 14 and 16 should provide you with the same desktop settings and customizations.
18. This procedure gives users desktop consistency whether they are using their domain account in the office or their local account in their home office.
