TextHarvester.dat Help!

[Guest]

Hi

 

ive set a group policy for our users computers to delete roming profile upon logoff around school.

it does delete untill they restart their computers and it comes back with there roaming profile with the following

 

c:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\InputPersonalization\TextHarvester\ and a dat file called "TextHarvester.dat" is left behind.

this now causes the user to have a second local roming profile created with the .001 extension everytime they login

 

ive done some home work on the internet and seen some people blame it on the "TabletInputService" ive disabled this service in a group policy preference. it seemed to have worked at first then the problem comeback

 

some people on another forum think its down to the "Windows Search" Service. and theres no way im disabling that as our users need it!!!

 

im ripping my hair out.

 

im running a windows server 2008 r2 domain with windows 7 professional x64 clients around school

 

has anyone actually resolved this problem as i am seeing different results on various forums!

 

Hope someone can help

 

Regards

[neilherbertuk]

Hi Phillip,

 

I've been having this issue on some new windows 7 ent laptops recently. After some research I came to the same conclusion as you with the TabletInputService but as you have too, found it wasn't. This issue is to do with Windows Search Service getting corrupt. By default the Windows Search Service doesn't index the AppData folder, I've found that it gets corrupt (I have some idea to how it's getting corrupt for us) and starts to index that folder. It's an easy fix, though perhaps time consuming if you've got alot of machines doing this:

 

Go to "Turn Windows Features on or off" from Programs and Features in the control panel. Untick the Windows Search feature and press ok.

 

Reboot

 

Delete the profiles you are having issues with.

 

Repeat the process but re-tick Windows Search to reinstall the feature.

 

Perhaps slightly unrelated but we came across this with when setting up new laptops for our staff. I've seen this happen alot when you add a domain account as a local admin before you've let the account login and cache. For our laptop users we give them local admin rights. We ran into this problem when someone in our office started to add their permissions before caching the account.

 

Neil

Edited December 16, 2012 by neilherbertuk

[computer_expert]

It's an easy fix, though perhaps time consuming if you've got alot of machines doing this:

 

Go to "Turn Windows Features on or off" from Programs and Features in the control panel. Untick the Windows Search feature and press ok.

 

Reboot

 

Delete the profiles you are having issues with.

 

Repeat the process but re-tick Windows Search to reinstall the feature.

 

 

You could use a batch file/powershell command and dism.exe to enable/disable windows search if you have a lot of machines to sort out

[Guest]

Morning!

 

thanks guys, im back in the office this morning so will try that out on a test machine and see what results i get.

 

thanks for the heads up, will let you know if it works or not

[Guest]

Report back all ready lol

 

the profile does get deleted on logof but upon restart i get the user folder back with the textharvester.dat file back!

 

thanks anyways.

 

there must be a reason why this file keeps coming back

[Guest]

I have done some more experimenting though!

 

ive turned the windows search service off for an hour. ive logged in and restarted a few times and the problem hasnt come back

 

so it is the windows search service! one step closer everytime. but really need to have the windows search enabled i cant just leave it off.

 

***just re-enbled search sevice and the problems back again

Edited December 17, 2012 by phillip_croxford

[Guest]

Problem finally solved! i found this on the internet

 

Deleted User Profiles reappear with TextHarvester.dat | Hello World

 

if you read the bit that says enable "Prevent indexing of certain file types" in group policy, it seems to be only avaiable in the local group policy which is a pain but it did solve my problem.

 

if i could get this gp setting in a group policy for my domain this would make life more easier right now as i have over 100 pcs to apply this to!!

 

but tried this a few times and works finally

 

thanks for all your help

[Guest]

Sorry

 

many appologies. the problem has again returned this morning! even though it was set yesterday!

[SteveAustin]

This hotfix might solve your problem.

[Guest]

Good news everyone!

 

I can confirm after a few tests yesterday! the hot fix does actually work. i no longer have the dreaded "textharvester.dat" file reappearing after a restart

 

I would recommend anyone who has this problem to look at the fix on the Microsoft website and install.

thank you steveaustin!

[timbo343]

Just to dig this up again. I've been struggling with the profiles, the same as these guys. Problems with the textharvest.dat file which i think is linked to the Smart boards, as it is only these machines in our place which are affected.

 

The fix has fixed my problem with corrupt profiles.