Remove Old User Profiles and Reclaim Disk Space

**Win32_UserProfile** returns the SID, the path and the last use time. The size comes from the folder, so the two commands together show what a deletion is worth.

Get-CimInstance Win32_UserProfile | Select-Object LocalPath,SID,LastUseTime,Loaded,Special | Sort-Object LastUseTime
Get-ChildItem C:\Users -Directory | ForEach-Object { [pscustomobject]@{ Name = $_.Name; GB = [math]::Round((Get-ChildItem $_.FullName -Recurse -File -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Measure-Object Length -Sum).Sum / 1GB, 2) } } | Sort-Object GB -Descending

**Get-LocalUser** gives the SID of every local account, and the well-known SIDs for SYSTEM and the service accounts belong to Windows. Removing those breaks the machine.

Get-LocalUser | Select-Object Name,Enabled,SID,LastLogon
Get-CimInstance Win32_UserProfile | Where-Object { $_.Special -eq $false } | Select-Object LocalPath,SID,LastUseTime

Desktop, Documents and Downloads are what people miss. A last look at the folder costs a minute; restoring a deleted profile later is not possible.

$p = 'C:\Users\olduser'
Get-ChildItem "$p\Desktop","$p\Documents","$p\Downloads" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object FullName,Length,LastWriteTime
Get-Item "$p" | Select-Object FullName,LastWriteTime

The **Delete** method removes the folder, the registry entry under ProfileList and the profile from the system list in one operation. That is the difference to an Explorer delete.

$prof = Get-CimInstance Win32_UserProfile -Filter "SID='S-1-5-21-1111111111-2222222222-3333333333-1002'"
$prof | Select-Object LocalPath,LastUseTime
$prof.Delete()
Get-CimInstance Win32_UserProfile | Select-Object LocalPath,SID

**Get-PSDrive** shows the free space before and after, and the folder must be gone. A folder that reappears means the account signed in again.

Get-PSDrive C | Select-Object Used,Free
Get-ChildItem C:\Users -Directory | Select-Object Name,LastWriteTime
Get-ChildItem 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList' | Select-Object PSChildName

A profile that was deleted while it was loaded leaves a registry key with a state value. A **.bak** suffix under ProfileList is the usual sign of a half-removed profile.

Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\*' | Select-Object PSChildName,ProfileImagePath,State
Get-CimInstance Win32_UserProfile | Where-Object { $_.LocalPath -like '*\Users\*' -and -not (Test-Path $_.LocalPath) } | Select-Object LocalPath,SID