ItsGeekToMe.co

Q: I bought a used computer from my brother last year, loaded with Windows 7. It took a neighbor several hours to help us get our webmail account compatible with Cox. Early this week, when I tried to log onto my computer (everything is password protected), I received this message:

User Profile Service Failed Logon
User Profile Cannot Be Loaded

My brother is now sending me the disks to set it back to factory standard. I’m concerned that if I use the disks, I’ll have the same problem getting an email accounts (my husband and I share the computer but each have our own log on passwords) set up, and I don’t dare ask the neighbor to help again. Any advice on A) The message I’m receiving and B) An easy way to set up our email accounts if I go back to the factory settings?

– Robyn H.
Mary Esther, Florida

A: You did a great job of providing information on problem A), Robyn, (accurate, exact error messages are always very helpful) but I have a few issues with problem B), both in what you are asking, and that you didn’t supply me with enough information.  Nevertheless, I think I can help you with both problems.

So, A) is not a problem with Windows, so you don’t really need the original disks to fix it. However, your brother should have provided them to you along with the computer anyway.  Problem A) is with your user account, or profile.  For one reason or another, Windows was unable to access your profile information when it tried to log you in.  This information is stuff like your password, the location of personal folders, such as your account’s My Documents folder, and other system personalizations that by their nature vary from profile to profile.  At first I thought that your brother might have caused this problem by manually deleting his account before sending the computer to you, but your question makes it sound like this system has been working for you for a while.  So it’s more likely that the Windows login process was competing with something else on the system (such as a malware scanner) for access to your profile data, and got locked out.  The regular fix for that would be to simply reboot, but I’m assuming you’ve tried that, or you wouldn’t be writing to me.  This issue is easily fixable, but the procedures are a bit detailed.  Rather than recount them in my limited column space, I’m going to instead refer you to a Microsoft Support Article on this topic at tinyurl.com/36r8du.

As for B), your question first said “…help us get our webmail account compatible with Cox.” That is a non-sequitur, since by definition, webmail exists on the web, and while there may be some personalization available, there’s nothing you would need to do to make it compatible with Cox – it IS Cox.  I suspect what you really meant was “…help us get our e-mail client software compatible with Cox.” (The e-mail client being the software installed on your computer that you use to read, compose, and send e-mail.) That’s fine, but you didn’t tell me which e-mail software you use.  Still, not a problem, because Cox has a fairly comprehensive set of online help pages to guide you through setting up most popular e-mail software to work with their service.  Setting up is not so much a matter of getting your e-mail client to be compatible with Cox as it is simply configuring it with your e-mail account information so that it can send and receive e-mail using your account.  Start out in the residential support area of the Cox website.  Here’s a good spot: tinyurl.com/mc38qjg.  Partway down the page are links that start with the words “How do I set up” then have various e-mail clients.  If you don’t want to bother your neighbor again, click one of the links under the “Need More Help?” navigation bar, found on most of the Cox web pages.