Many novice users who are trying to figure out how Windows operating systems work, encounter a lot of obscure objects when viewing system files. One of these is the NTUSER.DAT file. What is it, ordinary users are unlikely to guess. But any system specialist can easily explain what kind of component it is and what settings it contains.
NTUSER.DAT file: what is this operating system component?
Yes, yes, this is really a component that contains settings (and not a virus, as some users believe). To understand what kind of file NTUSER.DAT, just think about the English abbreviation.
NT is usually interpreted as “network”, USER is “user”, and the DAT extension means data file (DATA). Thus, it is not difficult to conclude about the purpose of the NTUSER.DAT file component. What is it in the general case? This is a data file and settings of a network user registered in the system. But, since we are talking about one terminal, this may not have anything to do with the network (only to users of one individual terminal).
Registry related information
The NTUSER.DAT data file, by itself, is designed to store user settings that are initially changed in the system registry (HKCU branch).
The file itself is located in the user directory on the system drive in the Users directory. But what is stored in the NTUSER.DAT file itself? What are these parameters? This mainly relates to logging in, the applicable theme for the design of the graphical interface, program settings, and much more. In other words, if two users are registered on one terminal, in the personal directory of each of them it will be possible to find NTUSER.DAT files that are identical in name but different in content.
In addition, if you turn on the display of hidden system files in the same "Explorer", you can see a huge number of similar components. They can appear due to changes made by the user in their own settings, or when event logging is turned on (NTUSER LOG files are responsible for this).
How to remove NTUSER.DAT, and is it possible to do this?
Some users are trying to get rid of this system component. No, of course, if you have the appropriate access rights, you can delete such a file (as well as all related components). But the consequences can be the most sad.
Firstly, absolutely all user settings will “fly off”, and even logging into the system may not be possible. Secondly, Windows will create a temporary user profile for logging in, which will be automatically deleted after completing work with the system or when changing users. So, you understand, it’s not worth doing such things under any circumstances (all the more so since all the files together, including hidden ones, occupy no more than a dozen and a half megabytes).
Recovery Issues
But suppose, for some reason, this configuration file was deleted (accidentally, intentionally, due to virus exposure - it doesn’t matter). How to restore NTUSER.DAT with all the ensuing consequences in terms of using previously saved user settings?
The main technique is to roll back the system to the control point that preceded the removal. However, if the user has taken care of the safety of the system parameters in advance and created a backup copy of the registry by exporting them to the REG-file from the editor, the question disappears by itself. In the latest versions of Windows, even after recovery, it is enough to run the saved registry file as administrator and confirm the merge. After the reboot, get exactly what it was before (in the sense of personalized settings for a specific user). Even if such a file was not saved, recovery will occur from the backup in which it is. In general, it is the registry that is used to perform rollbacks, not copies of Windows disks or images.
Conclusion
As you can already understand, it is better not to touch the NTUSER.DAT file unnecessarily, as well as the related operations in the registry. Ordinary users are recommended to make changes only at the level of the graphical interface of the system. This is both simpler and safer (all the same, all changes will be recorded both in the form of registry keys and in the form of the contents of the NTUSER.DAT file).
But system engineers can use the editing of the desired item and registry to make more subtle changes to settings that, in the same graphic mode, are not available at all. And there are a lot of those (believe me). But it’s not always advisable to change system files without an emergency, since this can even lead to a complete system crash at the most inopportune moment. After that, even a rollback may not work, and the operating system itself will have to be reinstalled. If someone thinks that in Windows 10 returning the computer to its original state will give the expected effect, he is deeply mistaken. This is equivalent to the same reinstallation of the system from scratch with the removal of all user files, programs and settings.