Patch Tuesday Windows 10 update KB4532693 is borking user profiles

Cumulative update issued on Tuesday loads incorrect user profiles and resets desktop and Start menu

One of Microsoft's latest Windows 10 Patch Tuesday updates is causing incorrect user profiles to be loaded on start-up and resetting users' desktops and Start menus.

The offending update, KB4532693, is supposed to address problems installing updates, and to improve the security of Microsoft Edge, Office and various hardware devices.

It also, according to Microsoft, "improves the installation experience when updating to Windows 10, version 1903".

However, in the latest round of ‘Microsoft Update roulette', a large number users have warned that user profiles fail to load, providing them with a temporary profile instead, and therefore resetting Start menus and barring users from accessing their documents.

One user posting to Microsoft Answers, asked: "When I closed down my PC last night it started doing updates and was taking a long time so I left it and went to bed.

"This morning I logged on - no problems, but I then realised (I can't remember how) that my files had all moved to another folder in the c drive, ending in .000.

"After doing some searching for advise online, I restarted the PC several times but it hasn't changed. I have even closed it down completely to see if this made a difference - it didn't. I am now worried that I will close down again and from what I have read this may be a temporary file."

They weren't the only distressed Windows user to post an SOS about the problem.

The response indicated that it is a widespread problem. "This is happening much too often at the moment… Do not copy your files into the Temporary profile you are currently in. When the situation is corrected, your files will be deleted with the Temporary profile and will not be recoverable."

The moderator suggested that users should navigate to C:\Users to check whether data related to the original profile can be found. If so, users should create a new user profile with administrative privileges and copy all the data over from the old profile into the new profile.

Another proposed solution is to uninstall the update and restart the PC.

BleepingComputer, which runs PC user forums, where the problem also surfaced, suggested that the update loaded up a temporary file for the purpose of updating the computer, but had failed to restore machines to their original profile when the update is completed.

"Unfortunately, restoring a profile through Registry edits may be a very difficult and risky task for many people.

"As some people stated that they could resolve the issue by restarting Windows a few times or uninstalling the KB4532693 update, it is safer to go down this route first if you are affected by this issue," it advised.