SOLVED: Why Delete Button is Greyed Out on Local User Profiles
The DELETE button in the User Profiles section of System Properties can be greyed out for three reasons:
Profile in Use: If the user for that profile is still signed in, you can’t delete it. This can happen if:
the profile for the user you’re currently signed into cannot be deleted
someone has used “Switch User” instead of signing out completely
this is an RDS server and multiple users are signed in
System Default Profile: If the profile is a system default profile, it’s not meant for deletion
Group Policy or Registry Issue: Sometimes, the greyed out delete option may be due to Group Policy settings
If none of these are your issue, the registry hive may not have been released by the operating system when a user attempted to logout so try rebooting the computer.
Alternately, you just be wrong and the profile is not LOCAL… double check the TYPE column.
I'm seeing a number of Windows 10 and 11 systems I manage (mostly HP EliteBooks) where the Delete button for _all_ profiles is grayed/disabled! It doesn't matter if I reboot, etc. If I boot to Safe Mode, the Delete button is no longer grayed/disabled for other user profiles. When booted normally, if I use handles64.exe from Sysinternals, I can see several registry-related (e.g. ntuser.dat) files are locked by the System (pid 4). I suspect some service/agent/driver we use is causing this. I may need to experiment with selective startup to identify the service(s), etc., that cause this.
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I'm seeing a number of Windows 10 and 11 systems I manage (mostly HP EliteBooks) where the Delete button for _all_ profiles is grayed/disabled! It doesn't matter if I reboot, etc. If I boot to Safe Mode, the Delete button is no longer grayed/disabled for other user profiles. When booted normally, if I use handles64.exe from Sysinternals, I can see several registry-related (e.g. ntuser.dat) files are locked by the System (pid 4). I suspect some service/agent/driver we use is causing this. I may need to experiment with selective startup to identify the service(s), etc., that cause this.
Great details and insite Ron. Thanks for sharing!