Why does my desktop looks different ?

 

Many a time people ask “Why does my desktop look different ?” and when I ask for details they would explain that they use to have more icons and/or files on their desktop than what they have then. So here, let me explain why most of the time this happens …

On a Windows machine, there is this thing called profiles where the users login credentials and information are stored. Hence, when one logs in as a user, say, Insan4IT, it gets the profiles for that users from the store and restore the login preferences and settings of that person. Simple enough ? Not quite ! Here the tricky bit …

 

“Look ! I’ve logged in using Insan4IT but all seems

different than it was yesterday !”

 

I’ll tell you why in a sec … Watch …

This is the typical login screen for Windows XP

Note the Log on to item.

This is present usually for corporate/office user to switch/toggle to their DOMAIN.

The local-machine profile and the domain-profile are 2 separate profile !

TAKE HEED !

Another type of login screen. To toggle it to the above version, simply

do a CTRL-ALT-DEL twice and voila !

 

Windows Vista login screen

 

 

Windows 7 Login screen.

 

Another reason why you can’t login to your profile is that it is on your company’s server (domain profile). You can’t get logged into your domain profile because:

1. the profile is on the server and either the network connectivity is faulty or that the domain controller (your company’s server) is down

2. the profile is corrupted (call for help :) )