Okay so I boot up my computer and for some reason after inputting my pass I get a preparing your desktop...after that has finished loading I get a popup that says my desktop can't be found so it defaults to some basic factory setting. Everything works perfectly and when I restart my desktop works as normal.

I'm using Windows 7 64 bit home premium and does anyone have an idea why this happens?

 

Screenshot or exact wording of the pop-up would help.

 

Hm...I can't seem to get it anymore.

It said as close as I can remember that C:/Windows/system32/config/systemprofile/desktop something couldn't be found.

I tried to search for it (when the desktop wasn't working and it didn't (or wouldn't) find it. Though I'm finding it just fine now. Gah. What a weird error.

 

Did the resolution change? Have your desktop icons grown bigger while it was in this default factory setting?

 

No the resolution was exactly the same, the icons were the same (just my folders on my desktop were missing) my wallpaper and bar color was different (It had defaulted to windows 98 like) and that's it. Really bizarre error.

I seem to have fixed it by changing my desktop to something else before turning it back.

 

Sarah, this isn't a totally uncommon problem, I have had to fix it at work a few times. Basically the file relating your credentials to your profile gets corrupt or is just not picked up. Your original profile still exists (as you found when you restarted) but windows goes ahead and creates a new profile for you.

I wouldn't worry about it because the restart usually fixes it. When it doesn't you have to find the file that it's giving you an error for and place it back into your original profile instead of your new profile - restart and you will have your original profile back.

For now, make another account on your computer and give it admin rights. Just in case your profiles gets lost again. Because you will need an account other than your profile and pseudo profile to fix the issue.

 

Thanks for the advice Nuhuh.