Dear Windows experts. How to *clone* an user *precisely* from one machine to other users on the same machine or on to another machine? This arises out of a very strange problem where different users are getting different results. We have some custom services running on Windows Servers 2003 SP2 There is only one copy of software installed on the machine. There are eight users (usrA, usrB, .. usrH) configured identically (as much as we can tell) and run eight instances of those services which listen on 8 distinct ports. Client processes connect over the network and use those services which produce binary data files as result. On one particular machine, those instances produce two distinct sets of results, one set *correct*, the other set *incorrect*. Five specific instances (C, D, E, F and H) produce the correct result, the other three (A, B and G) produce the incorrect result. This behaviour persists across system reboots of this machine. When we installed the software on other machines and created new users, all of those produce the same "incorrect" result. The differences are consistent in that the checksums of all of the *correct* results are identical, and the checksum of all of the *incorrect* results are also identical. My suspicion is there is some subtle difference between those two sets of user accounts which is causing the difference and I think if we can *clone* the known user(s) then we can solve this problem. Your suggestions on this will be greatly appreciated. If this is not the appropriate forum, my apologies, and could you please point me to the right place? Best regards

1) if the sofware is third party contact the manufacture for support. Pay for it if needed. 2) If the sofware is developed in house goto the developers for help, of if they have left the company, hire a consultant that knows the language the program was written in. Find the source code first. 3) Nothing in a user account (local or domain) is going to cause this issue, unless you know the software is specifically doing something, in which see #1 and #2 above. However, If in a domain you can use AD Users and Computers to easily copy one user to create another user with the same properties. 4) Possibly some setting in a user profile may be the cause, use the system properties, advance settings, user profile, copy button to copy a good user profile to another user. There are eight users (usrA, usrB, .. usrH) configured identically (as much as we can tell) and run eight instances of those services which listen on 8 distinct ports. Client processes connect over the network and use those services which produce binary data files as result. I would do a packet capture and do some diagnostics of the good vs the bad, then go to the manufacture/developer with questions on what you found. Alternatively, you could get into debugging/disassembling the program using W32DASM or similar product. Again compare the good vs, the bad. Sounds like you are in a tough spot.

Thanks for your answer. Yes, it's #2, the system was developed in house, and the original developers are no longer here. We do have a developer, but is too new. The data that comes over the network is stored locally, and they check out, ie no corruption there. The input is actually RTF, and output is TIFF produced by making Word print to a TIFF driver. In all cases, a common Document Template is used, and for the incorrect results, the output shows characters which have shifted unusually, as if the template is not loaded correctly, I'll try #4 Thanks again.

Thanks for your answer. Yes, it's #2, the system was developed in house, and the original developers are no longer here. We do have a developer, but is too new. The data that comes over the network is stored locally, and they check out, ie no corruption there. The input is actually RTF, and output is TIFF produced by making Word print to a TIFF driver. In all cases, a common Document Template is used, and for the incorrect results, the output shows characters which have shifted unusually, as if the template is not loaded correctly, I'll try #4 Thanks again. You typically copy a user account and change the user.dat file make the user profile a mandatory profile.(No Changes can be made) Folder options should be changed to show hidden files and system files. There's a couple ways to copy... there's USMT and just the manual direction. Here's manual because USMT has their own page and there's no point in reinventing the wheel. Create a user account and login for your "Template User" Make the customizations Log Off Login with the desired user Log Off and Reboot (To unlock user.dat files) Login with an Administrative user. Change folder options mentioned above. Navigate to the users folder - Delete everything (C:\Documents and Settings\New User) Copy the entire file and folder content from the Template User account. Paste the template user account files and folders into the user that was already logged in. Rename User.dat to User.man in the user account Cleanup by Disabling the template account (Works best in Active Directory with user accounts that have the same SID across the domain) Managing User Profiles (2000, but also applies to XP) http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb726990.aspx USMT for XP http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457090.aspx Steve Kline Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Server Administrator Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Active Directory, Network Infrastructure, Application Platform, Windows 7 Microsoft Certified Product Specialist & Network Product Specialist Red Hat Certified System Administrator This posting is "as is" without warranties and confers no rights.

Thanks for your answer. Yes, it's #2, the system was developed in house, and the original developers are no longer here. We do have a developer, but is too new. The data that comes over the network is stored locally, and they check out, ie no corruption there. The input is actually RTF, and output is TIFF produced by making Word print to a TIFF driver. In all cases, a common Document Template is used, and for the incorrect results, the output shows characters which have shifted unusually, as if the template is not loaded correctly, I'll try #4 Thanks again. You typically copy a user account and change the user.dat file make the user profile a mandatory profile.(No Changes can be made) Folder options should be changed to show hidden files and system files. Managing User Profiles (2000, but also applies to XP) http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb726990.aspx Steve Kline Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Server Administrator Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Active Directory, Network Infrastructure, Application Platform, Windows 7 Microsoft Certified Product Specialist & Network Product Specialist Red Hat Certified System Administrator This posting is "as is" without warranties and confers no rights.

Thanks for the step by step instructions,