Difference between User profile and user account

All replies

• 

  

  0

  Sign in to vote

  Extracted from Technet library:

      

  A user account is the user's unique credential that allows the user to access resources. Each person who will regularly use the network and participate in a domain, or who will log on to a local computer to access local resources, must have a user account. With user accounts, you can control how a user gains access to the domain or a local computer.

       

  In Windows NT, a user's computing environment is determined primarily by the user profile. Windows NT security requires a user profile for each account that has access to the system. The user profile contains all user-definable settings for the work environment of a computer running Windows NT, including display, regional, mouse, and sounds settings, and network and printer connections.

      

  For more details, you can look up this link:

  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc751313.aspx

           

  Hope that helps.

  
  
  

  • Edited by Tas76 Tuesday, September 3, 2013 2:20 AM

  Tuesday, September 3, 2013 2:17 AM
• 

  

  0

  Sign in to vote

  Hello,

  User Account: basically, it´s an account which you use to log on to Windows (or to logon in any other system, application, etc).

  User Profile: it´s a collection of settings (and personal settings) for na "User Account". It contains the user settings for desktop (colors, backgrounds, screen savers, Windows Theme),  sound and vídeo settings, some applications configurations, etc. User Profiles are used whenever you log on to Windows and it´s created in the first time you logon on the machine.

  Relation between User Account x User Profile: Each user account has one user profile associated with it (also, a user account can have multiple user profiles)

  Hope I have helped you understand.
  Best Regards,

  Luciano

  Tuesday, September 3, 2013 3:16 AM
• 

  

  0

  Sign in to vote

  Hi,

  Extracted from Technet library:

  A user profile is a collection of settings that make the computer look and work the way you want it to. It contains your settings for desktop backgrounds, screen savers, pointer preferences, sound settings, and other features. User profiles ensure that your personal preferences are used whenever you log on to Windows.

  A user account is a collection of information that tells Windows what files and folders you can access, what changes you can make to the computer, and your personal preferences, such as your desktop background or color theme. Each person accesses their user account with a user name and password.

  For example, If your user profile is corrupted, then you will encounter error when logging on to windows or meet other error messages, you will need to create a new profile, but before you create a new profile, you must first create a new user account. When the account is created, a profile is also created.

  If you want some more information, I’d like to share the following articles with you:

  User Profiles

  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc737881(v=ws.10).aspx

  What is a user account?

  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/what-is-a-user-account

  Regards,

  Yolanda

  Tuesday, September 3, 2013 10:29 AM
• 

  

  0

  Sign in to vote

  Thank you

  Tuesday, September 3, 2013 12:52 PM
• 

  

  0

  Sign in to vote

  a User account can have multiple user profiles ????????

  How???please explain more

  • Proposed as answer by Tas76 Tuesday, September 3, 2013 1:29 PM

  Tuesday, September 3, 2013 12:54 PM
• 

  

  0

  Sign in to vote

  There are two types of profiles, local and roaming profile.

      

  A locally-stored profile is only accessible from local computer. A roaming profile is stored in a network server and is accessible  from any computer to which a user log on.

      

  A user account can only have one local profile stored in a local computer. In Windows XP or earlier versions, the profile is stored under C:\Documents and Settings\<account> folder. From Vista onwards, the user profile is stored under C:\Users\<account> folder (assuming C is your system drive). To determine where your profile is stored, you can run the command line echo %userprofile% at command prompt.

      

  If you use the same account to logon to 5 different computers, then then you will have 5 different local profiles. This means that you can have different personal preferences, such as your desktop background or color theme, on each computers.

      

  If your account is configured to have a roaming profile, your profile will be stored in a network server. In this case, your personal preferences, such as your desktop background or color theme, will remain the same no matter which computer your account logon to.

       

  Hope that helps.

  
  

  • Edited by Tas76 Tuesday, September 3, 2013 1:23 PM
  • Marked as answer by Reza_Bahmani Tuesday, September 3, 2013 1:48 PM

  Tuesday, September 3, 2013 1:21 PM
• 

  

  0

  Sign in to vote

  Thanks

  Very Helpful
  

  Tuesday, September 3, 2013 1:49 PM