<p>I have received a Windows 7 machine where the user was unable to login to the system. Each time the user tried to login to the system he received the following error message:<br />
<strong>The User Profile Service service failed the </strong>logon<strong> &#8211; User profile cannot be loaded.</strong> This was the only user on the system and it did not have a password set.</p>
<p>In order to solve this, I had to fix the profile issue using the registry editor in the Safe Mode.</p>
<p>Here are the steps on how to fix this issue:</p>
<p><strong>Power ON</strong> the computer and hit <strong>F8</strong> several times until you get the <strong>advanced boot</strong> options shown below:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.wincert.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/IMG_0651.jpg"><img class="alignnone wp-image-2530 size-full" title="The User Profile Service service failed the logon" src="https://www.wincert.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/IMG_0651.jpg" alt="The User Profile Service service failed the logon" width="640" height="480" /></a></p>
<p>Select <strong>Safe Mode</strong> and hit enter.</p>
<p>You should be able to log in normally into the safe mode. Once you are logged in open <strong>Registry Editor (regedit.exe)</strong> from the start menu.</p>
<p>Navigate to the following registry key:</p>
<p><strong>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList</strong></p>
<p>Here you will see several folders that are related to user and service profiles. Search for the 2 folders with longer names as you can see below:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.wincert.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/IMG_0654.jpg"><img class="alignnone wp-image-2531 size-full" title="The User Profile Service service failed the logon" src="https://www.wincert.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/IMG_0654.jpg" alt="The User Profile Service service failed the logon" width="640" height="480" /></a></p>
<p>The folder that is related to our profile has been renamed to <strong>***.bak</strong> and the newly created folder above it has been related to the temporary profile we are currently using in the <strong>Safe Mode.</strong></p>
<p>We have to rename the <strong>***.bak</strong> folder to <strong>***.aak</strong> and then rename the <strong>first folder</strong> to <strong>***.bak</strong> and then remove the suffix from the <strong>***.aak</strong> folder.</p>
<p>In the left pane select the folder without the suffix and in the right pane search for the keys <strong>RefCount</strong> and <strong>State</strong>.</p>
<p>Both keys should have their data set to <strong>0</strong>. If they don&#8217;t, make sure you set the <strong>DATA</strong> value for both keys to <strong>0</strong>. Please <span style="text-decoration: underline;">do not change</span> the name or type of the key!</p>
<p><a href="https://www.wincert.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/IMG_0655.jpg"><img class="alignnone wp-image-2532 size-full" title="The User Profile Service service failed the logon" src="https://www.wincert.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/IMG_0655.jpg" alt="The User Profile Service service failed the logon" width="640" height="480" /></a></p>
<p>Close the registry editor and reboot. You should be able to log in normally now.</p>
<p>Comments are welcome.</p>