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Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don't do it. |
I have recently been getting messages relating to the user profile service failing to start or user profile failing to load. These occur when I first switch on my laptop i.e. before the normal welcome screen. Although I can get around these problems (usually just by rebooting) I would like to know what causes these errors and whether there is a permanent fix.
Sounds like the profile service itself is having trouble getting out of the gate when your computer is started from being completely off.
The first thing to take a look at is to see what the startup type is for the User Profile service. Open the search box and type “Services” into it. Click on the item at the top that says “Services App”. This will open the Services utility. Scroll down the list (which is in alphabetical order) until you reach the listing for User Profile Service. As you look from left to right across the row that it is on, you’ll see a listing for its description, then a listing for its current status and then, more importantly, you’ll see a listing for its startup type. On my machines, this says “Automatic”. I’m hoping that yours says the same thing.
If the User Profile Service’s startup type is indeed “Automatic, then you’ll need to have Windows check and repair its system files, as one or more of those being not quite right could indeed prevent the User Profile Service from successfully starting up right out of the gate.
To help remedy that problem, you’re going to need to log in with an account that’s a member of the Administrators group because the utility that you need to run to fix system file problems can only be run from an Administrator-level command prompt. I just tried running it from a normal non-administrator level command prompt and it told me that it can only be run from an administrator-level command prompt.
Once you’re successfully (without having gotten any user profile service error notices) logged in as an administrator (no, you don’t necessarily have to be logged in as THE Administrator), right click on the Start button and select “Command Prompt (Admin)” from the list. This will launch an administrator-level command prompt. At this prompt, type the following (without the quotes): “sfc /scannow”. Note the space between sfc and /scannow.
Let it run, as it can take several minutes to do what it does. At the end, it will report its findings and whether or not it fixed anything it found. It might even ask you to reboot in order for any fixes to take effect.
If this doesn’t work, post back with the results you got, including the exact wording of any error messages, and folks here will see what else can be done for you to further troubleshoot this issue.
Although you have been “getting around” it, the idea, of course, is for you not to have to “get around” it in the first place. 
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