How To Reset Your Profile
When using Windows workstations on the UBC_ECE domain, you may experience what can be described best as "corrupt profile" problems. There are many manifestations of a corrupt profile, including:
- problems downloading files
- problems using the Internet
- problems assigning the default printer and printing PDF files
The solution to these problems is to reset your profile. To reset your profile, you need to:
- Logoff from Windows
- Login to UNIX system (Use your neighbour's computer for a second to ssh to ssh-linux.ece.ubc.ca. You can also boot the workstations in the MCLD 358 lab into Linux for this purpose.)
- Rename your profile directory with mv profile profile.save. Also, for WIndows Vista, Windows 7, and newer versions of Windows, mv profile.V2 profile.V2.save.
- Logout from UNIX
- Logon to Windows; you will get a warning about your profile; ignore it
- Logoff from Windows; logging out is what actually creates the new profile
- If necessary, logon to Windows and restore files from profile.save directory. Delete profile.save to free up disk space
At this point problems with downloading files, surfing the Internet, assigning the default printer and printing PDF files should be gone. If you still have a problem, let us know by emailing it@ece.ubc.ca.
If this is too complicated, email it@ece.ubc.ca and we will remove your profile (brute force, but it works).
Please do not save any files on the "Desktop" or in "My Documents". Files stored in these locations are copied between the PC and file server every time you log in or out. Having a large number of files in these locations will cause login times to increases. Most importantly, files left in these locations may not be reliably saved to the file server. At all times, you should store your files in your Z:-drive.
Please consider changing your settings in Windows to store the minimum number of files on the "Desktop" and in "My Documents". For example, please change the settings for IE to reduce the cache to 10-20MB. Large caches will take a very long time to copy from the server, increasing login times to several minutes. Please see How To Keep Your Profile Small.
Also, you should stay well below your account's disk quota. If your home directory is full, Windows will fail to sync your profile with the server, causing it to become corrupted.
