Bloated Windows: Why Oversized Profiles Slow Down Your Computer

For those that don’t live in the Windows world – good for you. There won’t be much for you to learn here. However, for the majority of us that have to work with Windows in some way almost every day, oversized profiles are a big hassle. They take up a ton of disk space, slow down your computer’s performance, and even cause problems with installing or running applications. What’s in a user’s profile anyway?

In this blog post, I’m going to answer a few questions:

1. What is a Windows User Profile and how does it work? (Windows Admins – feel free to skip)
2. What kind of information is stored in the user profile?
3. Why does the profile get so large, but it is so hard to shrink down?
4. Most importantly, what are some strategies for keeping my profile size down?

So, what is a user profile?

A user profile is a collection of all of the information on a computer (or a set of computers) that has to do with you. Think of it as a manifestation of your personality in the digital realm. It holds information about your identity (your username, password, even biometrics if you use those kinds of devices), a history of the things you’ve done, your favorite items, appearance, and more. Your profile is your experience on a Windows computer.

What kind of information is stored in the user profile?

When you first log in to Windows (or in many cases, a computer network) your profile is created for the first time. Of course, you haven’t done anything yet, so your profile is empty. It might hold the default background on your desktop, a few suggestions for favorite websites, and some templates that you can use for applications like Microsoft Word. As you continue to use the computer and customize your experience, you’ll start using more applications, which will save settings and data about what you’ve done. You’ll visit websites, which will download temporary content and store it in your profile. Your documents, music, and pictures will also be stored. So, it’s easy to see how a profile can start to take up a lot of disk space after your computer use picks up.

There are two kinds of profiles – roaming and local. A local profile is a profile that is only used on one computer. Usually, if you’re using a personal computer or are part of a very small network, you’re on a local profile. That means that your customized experience can only be used from the same computer. On the other hand, a roaming profile can be used on many computers that are usually part of a computer network. In this case, your settings are stored on a server and wherever you log in, your profile follows you. This is common in large, corporate networks. Local and roaming profiles have their own sets of pros and cons, but since we’re concentrating on profile size vs. computer performance, the disadvantages are the same.

Why does the profile get so large, but it is so hard to shrink down?

The short answer is that profiles don’t like to forget. If you go hunting in your own profile (and we’re going to do that in a few minutes), you’ll see that unless you are vigilant about cleaning out your old temporary and application files often, information is stored that hasn’t been used in a long time. Even if you do stay on top of this, there’s still plenty of old data lying around taking up disk space. Many of these files are hidden, and so it’s hard to find them. The main system file for your profile, NTUSER.DAT, holds all of the registry settings and system configuration for your user experience, and tends to grow quite large over time. Since this is just one file and can’t be deleted, it’s difficult to simply go in and clean it out. An experienced user of the Windows Registry Editor might be able to go in and delete some old entries (a process that is sure to take some time), but if you’re not comfortable working in that application, stay out. Deleting the wrong registry keys can cause some serious damage to your system.

Strategies for Keeping Profile Sizes Down

Strategy #1: Remove Temporary Files

Many programs, especially web browsers, keep temporary files that are stored in your profile. Unfortunately, these programs don’t do the best job of removing those files when you are done. The best way to remove temporary files is to go in and do it yourself. We recommend downloading a program that allows you to evaluate the size of and delete temporary files on your computer. One of our favorites is TreeSize Free, by JAM Software (available at http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml). If you are using Windows 2000 or XP, look in the C:\Documents and Settings\username folder (username is your username), and if you are using Vista look in the C:\Users\username folder. Popular areas for temporary files to hide are in the Temporary Internet Files, Firefox Cache and Local Settings or Temp folders. Of course, always use caution when deleting files.

Strategy #2: Uninstall Old Applications

If there are any applications installed on your computer that you no longer use, uninstall them. These programs may keep data and configuration files within your profile and uninstalling will usually remove them. Never just delete files on your hard drive – always use the Add/Remove Programs applet in the control panel. If you don’t uninstall properly, you may be removing files and cleaning up disk space, but you won’t be removing the profile configurations, temporary files and shared files that are associated with the program.

Strategy #3: Run a Registry Cleaner Application

Just like deleting files ad-hoc, registry cleaners should be used at your own risk. We always recommend performing a full backup of your important files before performing a cleanup with an application such as RegCure (www.regcure.com). These programs will remove old entries and duplicate entries, compress your existing registry and even perform backups for you in case of a problem. It’s absolutely an option – but once again, use at your own risk.

Strategy #4: Delete Your Profile (this only works for local profiles)

This might seem like a huge hassle, but it really isn’t that bad. Keep backups of your most important configuration settings (such as web browsers, IM clients, office applications) and store your documents in a location outside of your profile (a flash drive or simply another area of your computer). When you see that your profile is starting to run slow and not cooperate, simply delete your profile and restart your computer. Once you log back in, a new profile will be created. You can then re-import all of your settings and continue on as if nothing changed, without the hassle of cleaning, debugging and compressing. This is a solution that I have personally used for quite some time and it works great – no wasted time trying to repair or re-install anything. Even if it does take some time to re-import all of your settings, it is guaranteed to take less time than troubleshooting all of the issues that will come as a result of these “bloated profiles”.