If you’re frequently seeing a lot of warnings in your Application event log with this error message:
“Windows saved user [user name] registry while an application or service was still using the registry during log off. The memory used by the user’s registry has not been freed. The registry will be unloaded when it is no longer in use.
This is often caused by services running as a user account, try configuring the services to run in either the LocalService or NetworkService account.”
Or with Windows SteadyState and getting this error message trying to edit a user profile:
“This user cannot be edited because the profile is currently in use. Ensure that this user is properly logged off and try again.”
Try installing the User Profile Hive Cleanup Service. Microsoft offers this tool for Windows XP and Server 2003. It cleans up and closes the registry after a user logs off.
With the Windows SteadyState error, if you use Unlocker you will see that NTUSER.dat and NTUSER.dat.log are locked by the system and cannot be unlocked nor the process killed. After installing the User Profile Hive Cleanup Service, this problem goes away and you’re able to get back into user profiles for editing.
Download the User Profile Hive Cleanup Service from Microsoft.