@Cindy I think your profile has been corrupted in normal mode, Ifpossibe go to safemodework for five minutes ,restart to safemode again . After go to normal mode.
If problem perissts. then do system restore to good working previous point
Preparing Windows, then loads an empty profile
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(204.8, 77%, 29%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EC%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Cindy
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Hi, I turned on computer and its preparing windows... It loads but it looks like a brand new computer with very few desktop icons. How do I get back to my stuff? I tried the power off 4x and way more then 4 times. Then got bitlocker, put in recovery key and still getting nowhere. Its still loading like new computer with very few things on desktop. This happened to me once before a few weeks ago but the powering off 4 times worked and got back to my stuff. This time its not working that way. Any idea how to get back to normal?
Windows for home | Windows 11 | Accounts, profiles, and login
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Brink 16,535 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator2026-02-08T23:46:27.8333333+00:00 Hello Cindy,
It sounds like you are booting into a temporary profile for your account. If you are getting one of the error messages below for this, then you can try the tutorial below for it to hopefully fix it.
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/48012-fix-youve-been-signed-temporary-profile-windows-10-a.html
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VARADHARAJAN K 9,591 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator2026-02-09T17:22:13.7466667+00:00