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You used the Windows 2000 Resource Kit Utility DelProf to delete old profile folders in Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003. You may not need it in Windows Vista, as Windows Vista includes a new Group Policy setting to automatically delete user profile folders that are older than a specified number of days.
The new Group Policy setting is "Delete user profiles older than a specified number of days on system restart".
CAUTION: There seems to be a bug in the above GPO which causes unexpected deletion of user profiles that have been used within the specified period. This bug is documented in KB945122. There is no official word on whether or not the bug fix is included in Windows Vista Service Pack 1. Therefore, before using this GPO, you need to obtain and apply the Hotfix 945122 from Microsoft.
(This article applies to Windows Vista Ultimate, Business and Enterprise Editions. Note that Windows Vista Home editions don’t include the Group Policy Editor.)
1. Click Start, type GPEDIT.MSC and press ENTER
2. Expand Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | System
3. Click User Profiles
4. Double-click Delete user profiles older than a specified number of days on system restart
5. Select Enabled, Specify the number of days and click OK.
More information on this GPO is available from Microsoft Knowledge Base article 940017.
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so it appears that the group policy itself is updating the ntuserBLAHBLAHBLAHNUMBER.TM.dat file as well as the ntuserBLAHBLAHBLAHNUMBER.TMCONTAINER00000000000001.regtrans-ms with the timestamp for the restart for file deletion. It may be related to this… still no one having these problems except us?
I forgot to mention I have run rsop.msc and the policy is making it’s way to the computer. Thanks again.
I am trying to use this feature on a domain and am finding it to not be working. If I look at c:\users\ the modified dates are correct on all the profiles folders and are in the past, however when I look at them through ‘System’, ‘Advanced System Settings’, ‘Advanced’ tab, then click the user profile ‘Settings’ button they all show a modified date of the last restart (presumably from the policy). Not sure why the dates display differently. I am guessing this is why they are not deleting though. I have tried testing this on many different machines with different images and the problem appears to be the same. I am trying to run this so any profile not logged on within the last 7 days is deleted. Any recommendation on how to get this working since there is no delprof for Vista? Thank you for your help!