User:Thomas J. S. Greenfield/sandbox/User profiles in Microsoft Windows

The Windows NT versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system store configuration information for each individual user account in user profiles, created the first time the user logs on into the computer, and loaded to configure the environment every time the user logs on. This information typically contains the user's desktop arrangement, start menu items and program groups,

? Mechanism
When a user account is created, the user profile is not immediately created, but is created from the default user profile when the user interactively logs on for the

first time. The folder for the user profile, usually named after the user name, is usually created under the default user profiles directory (Documents and Settings prior to Windows Vista, or Users in later versions).

The name of the user profile folder is not changed when the display name of a user is changed.

By default, the environment variable %UserProfile% redirects to the user profile folder for the current user.

Structure
A user profile in Windows typically contains