(This is one of many things I’m sure that cause this generic looking error)

After wrestling around for a long time trying to figure out what was breaking in the SQL / DirSync install. I noticed a “You’re using a temporary profile” error in the event viewer.

Turns out the install was trying to put something in my user directory but couldn’t because it was a temp profile (or something like that).

User profile cannot be loaded

Here is where things got really annoying. The profile-not-copying culprit was a file that windows was trying to copy from the default user template with the extension .sqm. According to this article, these are the “Software Quality Matrix” files that Microsoft uses to store information about how you use your computer.

Remember when you agreed to participate in the “Customer Experience Improvement Program?”

Simple. Delete the .sqm file.

Now profile loads with no issues and the freaking DirSync.exe tool loads correctly.