How do I Manage my Profile Storage Space
A User's Profile allows the user to have a personalized desktop environment. The desktop environment includes the
content and arrangement of Start Menu groups, screen colors, network and printer connections, and mouse/
keyboard settings. When a new user logs onto a computer, a profile is created automatically. While a user is logged
on, changes made to the desktop environment are saved to their user profile. When a user logs off, the changed
profile is uploaded to a server (creating a Roaming User Profile). When the user logs on again, their profile is
downloaded to the computer they have logged onto. Since User Profiles are downloaded when a user logs on, large
user profiles cause long login delays. The same goes for logging off. Limiting the User Profile size shortens the
time it takes to log on and off a computer. Haas Computing accounts are allocated 3 Megabytes of space for their
User Profiles.
An error message like the one below indicates that you are over your allotted User Profile space.
When you get this error, you will not be able to log off the computer until you reduce the size of your profile.
1. While you are logged on your Profile is stored in the directory C:\Winnt\Profiles or C:\Documents and Settings\
username. You can either browse to your file by following the paths above, or you can simply right click on the
Start Menu, then select Explore to get to your profile. Please refer to Fig 1 below.
Fig 1
2. Once you get to your profile you will see the following window:
Note that your username shows on the upper left hand corner.
If you cannot see all
the folders in your profile as
shown to the left, go to Tools >
Folder Options > View tab, then
select "Show hidden files and
Folders". Next, click OK.
You should now be able to see all
the files and folders in your
profile.
Fig. 2
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3. Most likely the bulk of space is being taken up by Temporary files, History files, and Cookie files. By default
Microsoft Internet Explorer saves these files to a User's Profile. You can reduce your profile size by:
Deleting the temporary files that are causing you to go over quota on your profile
Delete the Temporary Internet Files folder and its contents.
Opening the Cookies folder and deleting all the cookies except for the index.dat file.
Opening the History folder and deleting all files
Deleting or Moving any documents or programs from your Desktop
4. Following are the instructions to get rid of your Temporary files.
To see the files that are causing you to go over quota double click the profile icon
at the lower right hand
corner of your screen
1. Note that the Profile Storage Space window
shows the biggest files on your profile first.
You will then see the following window:
In this example it's two MP3s that are causing
Please follow the instructions to the right to get rid of your files.
the user to go over quota --by around 8 MB
(compare the "Current profile size" and the
"Maximum profile size")
2. We will follow the path of the second MP3
to delete it from the Desktop. The path is:
Desktop\[Italian]mecano-Figlio della luna.mp3
In order to clean this you can go to your
desktop and delete or move the files to your H
drive. Or you can Right Click on the Start
menu and select Explore. You will be taken
straight to your profile--where you can then
delete/move the mp3s from the Desktop folder.
3. In this example there is another file which is
also pretty large (666KB) considering the
amount of space you are allowed. In order to
delete this temporary file you would have to
open the Application Data folder in your
profile, then Microsoft >MS Project until you
get to the GLOBAL.MPT file-- delete the
GLOBAL.MPT. If necessary, please refer to
the STOP note in (step 2) for instructions on
Fig 3
how to see all the folders in your profile.
5. To get rid of the Temporary Internet Files, Cookies, and History
files just open those folders and delete their contents. In the cookies folder you won't be allowed to delete the index
file.
6. As you have seen in the example in Fig. 3, storing files on your desktop will also cause your Profile to go over
quota . You should move any documents in your desktop to your H: drive-- since that is your home drive. It is also
a secure place to leave your files--- for example if your profile gets corrupt, when we reset it, any files on your
desktop will be deleted. You can keep only shortcuts to your frequently used files or programs on your
desktop. Keep the files themselves on your H drive.
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