How to delete user profiles in Windows 11 and Windows 10. Whether you're cleaning up an old computer or managing a network, understanding how to remove user profiles on Windows is essential for any IT operation. In this video, we'll define what a user profile is. Outline multiple methods for deleting them in both Windows 10 and 11, and go over essential precautions and troubleshooting tips. Before we begin, be sure to subscribe to Ninja one's IT Video Hub for more tech content like this. What is a user profile In Windows? A user profile in Windows contains all the files and settings unique to a user, either on a single computer or on a server where it can be loaded from multiple machines. Think of it as a personalized space on your pc, it stores all your settings, documents, downloads, pictures, and even hidden application data. A Windows user profile can be one of different types, local, which is stored on your computer and not shared. Roaming, which is stored on a server and accessible from multiple machines. Mandatory, which is pre-configured by an administrator, meaning the user can't change it, and temporary created when your regular profile is inaccessible or in data is lost when you log out. Most home users will be working with local profiles, but if you're on a corporate network, you might be using a roaming profile on your Windows PC precautions Before deleting Windows, user profiles. User profiles contain important data, so you need to be sure you want to or have the authority to delete them. If you're fixing up a family member's computer, for instance, they might not be happy to lose some hidden data and settings in their profile. Even visible files are backed up. Before you start deleting anything, make sure to do the following. Inform the user and ensure they have a backup of their important data. Make your own complete backup of the user profile or a system restore point. Consider a full system backup as a safety net and confirm that the user is logged out and no programs are running under their account. In a corporate environment, the repercussions of deleting valuable business data may be more severe. If you're deleting a roaming profile on a user's device, make sure that all the data has been uploaded back to the server. First, how to delete user profiles in Windows 10 and 11. The methods to remove user profiles on a computer are the same for Windows 10 and Windows 11. You can do this in three ways using Windows system properties, using the command line and using PowerShell. Let's start with the first one First. Right click on the start button and choose system. Then after selecting advanced system settings under the user profile section, click on settings. From here, select a user profile from the list and click on delete. You can also manually delete the user profile in case you wanna remove all traces of it from the device. To do so, first, open file Explorer and navigate to clon slash users. Open this folder and find the user profile you wish to delete. Delete the folder for the user profile. Open the registry editor by right clicking on the start button. Clicking run typing. Rejet it in the run dialogue box and pressing enter. From here, navigate to this folder. Finally, delete the registry entry for the profile. Start by opening the command prompt. As an administrator, run this command and replace the bracketed portion with the username of the profile you wish to delete. Next, to delete the user directory, run this command and make the necessary replacements. Keep in mind that profiles deleted. Using this method can't be recovered from the recycle bin. First, open an elevated PowerShell window by pressing the Windows key plus S typing, PowerShell, and clicking on run. As administrator, run the following command and replace the bracketed section with a username of your chosen profile. How to manage user profiles With group policy in a network environment, you can use group policy to automatically delete unused profiles, which is helpful when you're managing roaming profiles with a high turnover of users. Simply open your group policy editor, navigate to this location, computer configuration, administrative templates, system user profiles, and enable and configure the policy named Delete user profiles older than a specified number of days on system restart. Let's touch on some troubleshooting tips when cleaning up Windows user profiles. If you can't delete a profile, ensure that the user is logged off, reboot the computer, or a boot into safe mode before trying again. You might also run into some permission issues while deleting a profile. Always make sure you're logged in as an administrator before performing this action. Finally, when deleting roaming profiles, verify that the user can log in and that their profile is correctly recreated. Consider using network shares to store user data to avoid data loss For any IT team. Managing several Windows user profiles is a huge challenge. You would need to strike a balance between properly configuring these accounts and avoiding issues with temporary profiles such as data loss. For more information, check out the full blog post on how to delete user profiles and Windows 11 and 10 linked Below.