It’s wonderful that you can remove any Windows password using PCWin Recovery. What is not so wonderful- is discovering all your important documents and pictures gone after log on! Thankfully this scenario occurs rarely. Understanding why files disappear is the story of understanding Windows profiles.
If you understand Windows profiles then you already know that your documents are still on the computer’s hard drive. All your documents, pictures, tax returns, and other important files are just not where you are looking. So where did your files go and how can you get them back?
Understanding Windows profiles
A long time ago Microsoft figured out that people liked to personalize their Windows computer. Microsoft made it easy for all of us to change desktop background image, modify the screen resolution, and change our Windows theme. And if you have more than one person using the same computer- each person can change and personalize their own settings without affecting any other users’ settings. Thank you Microsoft.
Just like everyone likes to customize Windows. We all want our own space for our important files. Microsoft takes care of this too, making sure that each person has their own document folder. Just like our Windows personalization setting, each user has a place for their own documents. So, even if more than one person uses the same computer- they only see their documents.
Digging Deeper into Windows profiles
So now you know that Windows user profiles keep track of your Windows personalization settings and your documents, pictures, and other important files. But what does that have to do with your lost files. Time to dig a little deeper. Windows keeps track of each users setting and your log on username is the key.
Let’s use an example to understand how your profiles work. When I log on to my computer- I type my username, “Rob”. Windows immediately goes to work. It checks my user folder- in my case C:\Users\Rob and loads my NTUSER.DAT file in the Windows registry as HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Now all my personalized settings are in the registry. Also did you notice the path C:\Users. All users that have ever logged onto my computer have their own user folder.
Temporary profiles and how they get that way…
Sometimes Windows cannot load a user’s profile. Sometimes because the NTUser.dat file is corrupt, sometimes because the user’s profile folder is deleted, and sometime there is another cause. If Windows cannot load a user’s profile it creates a temporary profile. So, we can still log on to our computer even if our user profile is damaged. But temporary profiles don’t have customized settings, and don’t show your expected user documents either.
Finding Your Lost Files
If you cannot find your files after resetting your Windows password simply open File Explorer and browse to C:\Users. Then open the folder with your username and voila – your folders and files! While you’re at it open a command prompt and type %userprofile%. That will display your current user profile location too. You can use the same trick in File Explorer (not Internet Explorer) too. Type %userprofile% in File Explorer Address bar and see the root of the current user profile.
So that wraps it up- except to assure you that PCWin Recovery does not modify the NTUSER.DAT file and does not delete the user profile or user files, and is not responsible for creating temporary profiles. In fact every version and edition of PCWin Recovery includes a built-in backup and recovery feature. Using PCWin Recovery restore feature you can easily restore your computer to a previous state and “undo” any changes PCWin Recovery made to your computer.