User hives loaded AFTER A REBOOT

(Please note: This isn't a job for UPHClean. It's not a problem with users

logging off.)

Does anybody know how a user hive can remain loaded in HKEY_USERS even AFTER

a Windows reboot (and before users have logged on)?

A program running with admin privilege, a spyware scanner, directly loads

all the user hives into HKEY_USERS to check registry settings for spyware.

Occasionally it fails to unload the hives, and users logging on get the

"Windows cannot load the locally stored profile" message. A reboot normally

frees up the hives.

But I am hearing scattered reports--which I haven't witnessed

personally--that user hives are still loaded into HKEY_USERS even AFTER the

system is rebooted. AFTER a reboot, an admin has to manually delete keys

from HKEY_USERS that the spyware scanner created BEFORE the reboot. Report

is that the key names in HKEY_USERS are obviously created by the spyware

scanner, not the SID keys from when a user logs on.

Any idea what can cause this?

Thanks!

Jay