Microsoft Windows profile refers to the user profile that is used by the Microsoft Windows operating system to represent the characteristics of the user. Windows XP Profile creation Establishing a user account on the computer (or on its parent domain) does not create a profile for that user. The profile is created the first time the user interactively logs on at the computer. Logging on across a network to access shared folders does not create a profile. At first logon, a folder will typically be created under "Documents and Settings" (standard folder on English version of Windows 2000, XP and Windows Server 2003) matching the logon name of the user. Should a folder of that name already exist, the profile-creation process will create a new one, typically named username.computername, on workgroup computers, or username.domainname on Active Directory member computers. Once a profile folder has been created, Windows will never automatically rename that folder. Thus if the username itself is subsequently changed, the profile folder will remain as is, and the profile will no longer match the username, which could lead to confusion. For this reason, the administrator might want to avoid renaming user accounts if at all possible, or rename the folder manually and edit the registry to reflect the changes. The new profile is created by making a copy of a special profile named Default User. It is permissible to modify this Default User profile (within certain guidelines) so as to provide a customized working environment for each new user. Modification of the Default User profile should ideally be done prior to any users logging-on to the computer. If a user has already logged on once or more, the Default Profile has no effect whatsoever for that user. Profile contents NTUSER.DAT Within the root of the profile, a file named NTUSER.DAT contains the user's personalized settings for the majority of software installed on the computer; including Windows itself. When the user logs on, NTUSER.DAT becomes merged with the computer's registry, such that it appears as the HKEY_CURRENT_USER branch of the registry tree. NTUSER.DAT is held open for writing (i.e., "locked") whenever the user is logged on. My Documents This folder is intended to contain the user's work, and in Windows XP-aware programs, dialog boxes will typically prompt the user to store documents here. "My Documents" as a shortcut also appears on the desktop, and in My Computer. It is