How To Fix Windows 10 Wiping Out All Settings On Login Bug

Windows 10 has become superbly more stable and less buggy since November 2015 but that isn’t to say it is totally bug free. Many of its confounding bugs are still there and users who encounter them will often have to leave themselves to having an OS that might never work right. One very unusual bug that users are facing is Windows 10 resetting to its default settings each time a user logs out or shuts down the system and logs back in. To say that this is a problem would be an understatement. Files aren’t deleted but things like applications that are pinned to the taskbar are reset so that you end up reorganizing your system for productivity all over again. There is one fix though that is worth trying out and it lies in the Windows registry.

Launch the Windows registry and navigate to;

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

Locate the profile you are  having difficulty with. It will likely have two folders of similar name i.e. the same GUID with one difference. One of the folders will end in .BAK. If that is the situation then this trick should help resolve your problem. To find the profile by its folder, launch it and look at the given name in the ‘ProfileImagePath’.

Step 1: In the folders with the matching names, one will show ‘Default’ in the profile name for the ProfileImagePath key whereas the other, the one ending in “.BAK” will show your username. Rename the folder with the ‘Default’ profile so it will end in “.TMP”.

Step 2: You need to delete the folder with the “.BAK” extension.

Step 3: Go over to the File and select Exit from the menu. Reboot your system and login again with your username and password. Your profile should be back with all your former settings. At the very least, this problem should be gone even if you end up setting up your profile afresh.

If the above fails you can take extreme actions and create a new profile where, hopefully the problem will not repeat itself.

Disclaimer: Though we personally carry out test on all tips and hacks we write about and know them to work, please try this at your own risk.