User Profiles

There is a maximum of one user logged on at a time, or it is possible to have no user logged on. To log on a user, call SetCurrentUser with the user name and a data binary large object (BLOB). SetCurrentUser will pass the user name and data BLOB to the security subsystem for encryption and decryption services. To log off a user, log on another user or call SetCurrentUser with a NULL name and data BLOB.

The following table shows how the type of registry changes the registry swapping behavior in user profiles, which is determined by the OEM.

Registry type Behavior
Hive-based Each user has its own associated user hive that will be mounted when they are logged on and unmounted when they are logged off. The user hive contains all registry data rooted at HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
RAM-based HKEY_CURRENT_USER is part of the persistent registry and is the same for all users. This means that no registry swapping is done when a user logs on or off and changes by one user may affect other users.

See Also

User Profile Setup | User Profile Storage | User Management

Last updated on Wednesday, April 13, 2005

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