SUMMARY
This step-by-step article describes how to clean profiles by using the
Cprofile command in Terminal Services. The
Cprofile command removes wasted space from profiles, and removes user-specific file associations from the registry if user-specific file associations are turned off.
Users can use file associations to associate a specific program with a specific file type. A server uses file associations to determine what program to use to access files of a particular type. File types are registered by using Explorer. With per-user file associations, each user can have a different program associated with a specific file type. For example, one user might have .doc files associated with Microsoft Word, and another user might have .doc files associated with WordPad.
Note that user-specific file associations in Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Terminal Server Edition are turned on or off by using the
Peruser command. If the user-specific file associations are turned on,
Cprofile removes only the wasted space from the user's profile. If user-specific file associations are turned off,
Cprofile also removes the corresponding registry entries.
For additional information about the preceding topic, click the article numbers below
to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
257592 Changes in File Types/Association Features in Windows 2000
186537 Terminal Server Commands: PERUSER
When items are removed from a user's profile, the corresponding registry does not become smaller.
Cprofile is useful in clearing this wasted space from the registry.
NOTE: Profiles that are currently in use are not modified, and you must be an administrator to run
Cprofile.
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Syntax for the Cprofile Command
Use the following syntax for the Cprofile command:
cprofile [/l] [/i] [/v] filelist
cprofile [/i] [/v] filelist
Parameters
- /?
Displays the syntax for the command and information about the command's options. - /l
Cleans all local profiles. You can also specify a list of additional profiles in the
filelist parameter. - /i
Interactively prompts the user with each profile. - /v
Displays information about the actions that are being performed. - filelist
A list of files from which you want to remove user-specific file associations. Separate each file in the list with a space. File names can contain wildcard characters.
NOTE: Use quotation marks to enclose paths that contain spaces. For example, type cprofile "c:\documents and settings\tester\ntuser.dat" "c:\documents and settings\tester2\ntuser.dat".
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An Example of Using the Cprofile Command
To clean all local profiles and clean an additional profile by using a network path, type
cprofile /l /i /v "\\server\C$\Documents and Settings\tester2\ntuser.dat" at a command prompt, and then press ENTER. The command interactively prompts you with each profile, and displays information about the actions that are being performed, similar to the following prompts:
Processing file: C:\Documents and Settings\Tester\NTUSER.DAT
Modify (Y)es, (N)o, or (Q)uit [default=n]? y
Processing file: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\NTUSER.DAT
Modify (Y)es, (N)o, or (Q)uit [default=n]? n
Processing file: \\zippy\C$\Documents and Settings\Tester2\ntuser.dat
Modify (Y)es, (N)o, or (Q)uit [default=n]? y
Troubleshooting
Note that profiles that are currently in use are not modified. To work around this issue, schedule the
Cprofile command to run when the server is not busy.