User profile distortion nightmare, part 1

[Andrew Aronoff]

I'm trying to repair a WXP Home installation several months after the
user profiles became "distorted". I have several sets of questions
about the predicament I'm in and each set will be posted separately.

Here's how the user accounts/profiles looked when I first started
working on the PC:

Two admin-level accounts:
Owner (Welcome screen name: "Cool Guy")
Administrator (not shown on the Welcome screen)

Profile directories in C:\Documents and Settings\:
Owner
TEMP
All Users
Default User (hidden)
LocalService (hidden)
NetworkService (hidden)

Note the TEMP directory. It was the primary profile directory for
Owner. (%USERPROFILE%=C:\Documents and Settings\TEMP at the command
prompt.)

Here's my first set of questions:

1. How could XP change the Owner profile directory from Owner to TEMP?

2. Why would TEMP be chosen as a directory name by XP?

If user intervention is required for any part of your answer, please
be aware that _no one_ except me has ever run REGEDIT on that PC. No
one in that household would ever venture into the Documents and
Settings directory -- user experience is limited to the desktop and
Start menu. Also, Hidden and System files are not displayed in
Explorer.

What scenario would explain the creation of the TEMP profile
directory?

regards, Andy

**********

The X's have been added to my email address to thwart spam.
Take them out to reply.

**********