Deleting a User Profile Via PowerShell Script

spiceuser-sqqz9 · 2018-09-27T19:42:22.000Z

I’m trying to create a script that I can use to erase employees. I’m using Goverlan to run it as a scrip package. It only seems to work some of the times. Is there a better way to write it?

#$us is the Users Profile you would like to remove

$us = "User ID"
Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_UserProfile | Where {$_.LocalPath -eq ("C:\Users\" + $us)} | Remove-WmiObject

Thanks!

Neally · 2018-09-27T19:44:49.000Z

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Neally · 2018-09-27T19:46:01.000Z

BobalonGaterau:

It only seems to work some of the times. Is there a better way to write it?

Could the user still be logged in? If it does not work, do you get an error message?

Is the Goverlan thing an agent installed on the machine?

If you run it as system you can force log all the users out and then try to delete it?

spiceuser-sqqz9 · 2018-09-27T19:49:22.000Z

User needs to be logged out, but the profile I am trying to delete is logged out. I don’t get any error message. Goverlan is installed because I can remote into it.

Neally · 2018-09-27T19:56:05.000Z

BobalonGaterau:

User needs to be logged out, but the profile I am trying to delete is logged out. I don’t get any error message. Goverlan is installed because I can remote into it.

What if you just try

$us = "User ID"
remove-item "c:\users\$us" -Recurse -Force -Verbose

Does the account you run it as have the right permissions?

tulioarends · 2018-09-27T20:18:18.000Z

You should not use the profile directory to identify it, as it is not guaranteed to be the same as the username.

spiceuser-sqqz9 · 2018-09-27T20:45:09.000Z

What is another way for me to identify the user profile? We have our usernames all formatted the same so it usually works.

spiceuser-sqqz9 · 2018-09-27T20:52:06.000Z

Neally:

BobalonGaterau:

User needs to be logged out, but the profile I am trying to delete is logged out. I don’t get any error message. Goverlan is installed because I can remote into it.

What if you just try
$us = "User ID"
remove-item "c:\users\$us" -Recurse -Force -Verbose
Does the account you run it as have the right permissions?

That would work, but I also need to remove the registry directory for the user.

Neally · 2018-09-27T20:59:57.000Z

BobalonGaterau:

That would work, but I also need to remove the registry directory for the user.

well, add more code to do that?

DoctorDNS · 2018-09-27T21:21:41.000Z

Just saw this.

What happens when it doesn’t work? What errors do you see? DO you have a PowerShell Transcript where it fails?

tulioarends · 2018-09-28T10:17:32.000Z

BobalonGaterau:

What is another way for me to identify the user profile? We have our usernames all formatted the same so it usually works.

The SID of the user.

$us = Get-ADUser "user" | select -ExpandProperty SID
Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_UserProfile | Where {$_.SID -eq $us)} | Remove-WmiObject

aileencjr · 2018-09-28T12:49:05.000Z

I’ve found that you actually also need to tell powershell to start an admin session, even if you are an admin, to delete a user profile with it. It would be helpful to get an error log.