Windows XP goes blank screen on user log off

If you use Windows XP and have multiple user profile on the same computer, you may experience an issue whereby when a user logs off and the screen will go blank for a long time before it goes back to the welcome screen where you choose the user profile. During that time, there seems to be nothing you can do but stare at the blank screen. The usual Alt-Ctrl-Del combination does not respond either. If you are patient enough you can wait, for several minutes before it will finally return to the welcome screen.

This is a known problem documented at Microsoft site at this page. What basically happened is that system processes and applications occasionally maintain connections to registry keys in the user profile after a user logs off. In those cases the user session is prevented from completely ending. And XP tries for a long time to end the session, which is why you get the blank screen.

You can download a program called User Profile Hive Cleanup service at that page, but however you need to go through the genuine Microsoft Windows validation first before you could do so. If you do not wish to go through the validation process or could not pass the validation for some reason, you can download the program at this site.

After you have downloaded the program, just run the program and it will be installed and the service loaded for you. The next time you logoff, the User Profile Hive Cleanup service will help ensure user sessions are completely terminated.