When you make changes in the Windows Registry you normally can only make them for all users or the user account that is currently logged in. But what if you want to make them in another user account ? There is an easy way to do that by loading the Registry hive of the user into the Registry.
Here is how this is done: Start the Windows Registry with the shortcut Windows R, typing regedit and pressing enter. Now mark the HKEY_Users folder in the Registry and click on File > Load Hive afterwards. The default directory that opens is the directory of the current user. Navigate to the user directory of the user that you want to make changes for, all available ones are listed in Document and Settings.
Enter that folder and look for the file ntuser.dat. That file is hidden, if you can’t locate it change the folder settings so that you can see hidden files and folders in Windows. A double-click on the file loads the Registry hive as a subfolder of HKEY_Users with the name that you have selected after clicking on the ntusers.dat file.
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Hmmm… What if you just right-clicked regedit.exe and then RUN AS… and carried on from there?
Will this tip also work for less privileged users ( I mean, non-admins )?
I can’t get this to work, I get two errors:
Cannot load C:\Documents and Settings\Username\NTUSER.DAT.LOG Error while loading hive
This error is when I try to load the NTUSER.DAT. log that I am working on:
cannot load C:\Documents and Settings\Username\NTUSER.DAT.LOG The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
I can only get NTUSER.DAT.LOG to allow me to enter a Key name, but it doesn’t work.
Modified instructions:
From: dhacks.net, dougknox.com, tech-archive.net
When you make changes in the Windows Registry you normally can only make them for all users or the user account that is currently logged in.
But what if you want to make them in another user account?
There is an easy way to do that by loading the Registry hive of the user into the Registry:
1. Start the Windows Registry with either:
Windows key + R,
Start >> Run >> Regedit
2. type regedit and press enter.
3. Highlight the HKEY_Users folder in the Registry
4. click on File > Load Hive
5. The default directory that opens is the directory of the current user.
6. Navigate to the user directory of the user that you want to make
changes for by clicking the up arrow.
7. All available directories are listed in Document and Settings.[1]
8. Enter that folder and look for the file ntuser.dat. ntuser.dat is hidden, if you can’t locate it change the folder settings so that you can see hidden files and folders in Windows.
Click the folder and then click okay.
Note There is also a file called ntuser.dat.log. Don’t open this.[2]
10. You’ll be prompted to enter a “Key name”. You can use whatever you wish, but I suggest using the User’s logon name.
11. You can now expand the Hive you just loaded and make any needed changes.
12. When finished, highlight this Hive again and in the drop down menu, click File >> Unload Hive. This loads the Registry hive as a subfolder of HKEY_Users with the name that you have selected after clicking on the ntusers.dat file.
You MUST unload the Hive prior to logging on to the users account. Otherwise XP may have trouble loading the user’s profile.
When I load the hive (only choosing ntuser.dat) it tell sme cannot load ntuse.dat.LOG: error while loading hive. I’m not choosing the .LOG one however
@Jon Rosen:
Jon, do you have file extensions showing? If not, ntuser.dat.log will appear as ntuser.dat and ntuser.dat will appear as ntuser. The one you need is larger in size (one I am looking at is about 6mb) and has an icon that looks like a white box with with a smaller box with colours (the standard Windows icon for when it doesn’t really know what the file is) and the other one has a notepad for the icon and is probably only about 1 kb in size.
To show file extensions and check what you are looking at, from the folder with ntuser.dat in it, choose Tools and then Folder Options. Click the View tab and scroll down until you see “Hide extensions for known file types” and remove the tick. Then just OK out of that box.
I will comment though, anyone who needed to follow the instructions to show file extensions may not have the computer knowledge to safely poke around in the registry doing something like this. If you do poke around, I suggest you do it by following instructions very, very carefully. Mess up in the registry and you may not be able to start your computer up or could damage programs. Also, back up your registry first.
Jon, sorry, I hadn’t actually tried loading a hive when I tried this and I realise that where you are finding ntuser.dat isn’t a place where you can change whether file extensions are shown or not. To change this, open My Computer or any other Windows Explorer window and choose Tools and then Folder Options from there. The rest of the instructions are fine.
Yes, I have the extensions showing, and I choose the right one, but it’s giving me an error, effectively telling me that the one I chose, is not the one I selecting to load, that’s the problem
Great !
Thx for the info. It works perfect.
The modified instruction supposed to answer the question of quote “cannot load C:\Documents and Settings\Username\NTUSER.DAT.LOG The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.” However, repeatedly the same tone without a solution. I encountered the same situation. Whatever key names are not accepted with the same popup warning message…..being used by another process.