Solved Changing "User Account" name

wjnm

Member
I would like to change the "folder" name of my primary user account. I do not want to set up a New User. I have already made the change in naming under User Accounts, but that does not change the technical naming of actual files and where they are stored. The folders like c:\Users\name. When we got this computer, I had set it up as Jim and Wendy. But am widowed now and would like to just fix it to \Users\Wendy.

Where is this information stored? Can I get at it to edit without blowing things up?
 

My Computer

Welcome
The best way to do what you want is to create a new account

Create a new account with the right name and delete the old account. You can save the files from the old account, when you delete, transfer them to the new account with new names.
User Account - Delete
The only other way as far as I know is to change the registry. Maybe others will know how that risky procedure is done.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
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    Dell USB
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    Dell USB 4 button optical
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    DSL provided by ATT
Hello Wjnm,

I agree with Rich. The best and safest way is to create a new account with the name you want that hasn't been used with the old account, and do the rest of what Rich posted above.

If you like, the tutorial below can show you how to properly rename the C:\Users\(user-name) folder in the registry without messing anything up. It's the same procedure in Vista as well.

User Profile Folder - Change User Account Folder Name - Windows 7 Forums

Hope this helps,
Shawn
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
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    Thermaltake Core P3
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    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
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    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
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    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
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    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
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    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
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    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
I've had to deal with a problem created by a user renaming that folder and you really don't want to go there. Not only will you break you profile (which as Brink has shown can be changed in the registry) but you might also break some of your programs if they are looking for configuration files in that folder. IMO you shouldn't attempt to rename it.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 8.1 Industry Pro x64
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    HP Pavillion Elite HPE-250f
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    Intel i7 860 Quad core 2.8 ghz
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    8 gb
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    ATI Radeon HD 5770 1 gb ram
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    Alienware 25 AW2521HF
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    1 TB x2
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    https://www.cnet.com/products/hp-pavilion-elite-hpe-250f/
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    Windows 2012 R2 Data center/Linux Mint
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    https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/productdetailstxn/poweredge-t140?~ck=bt
I agree that the registry tweaking can create other problems. It may work in a lot of cases, but not in others depending upon the software that was installed.

While a little tedious, creating a new user and transferring all of the files there is likely the best way to go.
 

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System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion dv5t
    CPU
    Intel Core Duo 2.53GHz
    Memory
    4Gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia GeForce 9600M GT 512Mb
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    1280x800 32bit
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Momentus XT 500Gb
    Hitachi Travelstar HTS543225L9A300 250Gb
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Thank you, everyone, for the suggestions. I'm going to try to get this accomplished in next few days. Quick question. Is there a way to make the main \Users\ folder "public" so that it would be accessible to the new or old User Account? OR, the subfolder for the old user account? That way I could see the old user folder and copy/move everything to the new user account folder, \User\NewName. Only other solution I can think of is to make a copy of the old \User\Oldname folder, et al, somewhere on C: above \Users. I have a 40Gb USB stick and it's now full.

Am I making any sense? I'm one of those "measure twice, or thrice, then cut" type folks. Have always made sure I had a thoroughly checked copy of the computer folder contents before deleting anything.
 

My Computer

May I suggest that on an external hard drive, you make an image of everything the way it is now. If the outcome of your experiments are not the way you want it, just reinstall the image and try again. I can tell you from personal experience that Macrium, does work. It saved me when recent updates brought down my system.
Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
If you open up Windows Explorer and take a look at the navigation pane on the left, you'll see under "Desktop" your logged on username and underneath that "Public". Within "Public" there are several folders for documents of various types. You can pick any one of them (e.g. public downloads) and copy/move files there. Then, when you're logged on with another account, you'll be able to see the files/folders without a problem.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion dv5t
    CPU
    Intel Core Duo 2.53GHz
    Memory
    4Gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia GeForce 9600M GT 512Mb
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800 32bit
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Momentus XT 500Gb
    Hitachi Travelstar HTS543225L9A300 250Gb
    Mouse
    Microsoft 4000
Got the files copied to a Public folder and went to User Accounts to create a New User and find that option is not available to me. I'm the Administrator; it does show that on my profile. And now that I have copied files, including the Desktop folder, into a Public folder (copied, not moved), Windows Explorer won't open so I am unable to reverse the copying. I have confused the poor computer by making a folder under Public which is named the same as the User Account, I think. Going to Start Programs, I am unable to COMMAND to bring up a DOS window to try to sneak in that way. I'm going to try going to SAFE MODE. Am I on right path? I at least have a backup computer to use. I'm submitting this from my 'wounded' computer.
 

My Computer

May I suggest that on an external hard drive, you make an image of everything the way it is now. If the outcome of your experiments are not the way you want it, just reinstall the image and try again. I can tell you from personal experience that Macrium, does work. It saved me when recent updates brought down my system.
Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

Did you follow these instructions?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
You are logged on with an administrator account, yet you cannot create a new user. Are you sure you've selected the right menu option? When you go to "User Accounts", you will see a "Manage another account" link. Click on that. In the next dialog, you see the existing users in a bordered box. Below that should be "Create a new account." From there you provide a name and account type, then click "create account." Is that option disabled or does it give you an error when you click it?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion dv5t
    CPU
    Intel Core Duo 2.53GHz
    Memory
    4Gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia GeForce 9600M GT 512Mb
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800 32bit
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Momentus XT 500Gb
    Hitachi Travelstar HTS543225L9A300 250Gb
    Mouse
    Microsoft 4000
No I did not have an external hard drive. I did get into Safe Mode and deleted the Desktop folder copies and rebooted. That solved that problem. Then, went into User Accounts, Manage User Account, which is where the Create New User Account is located. I am now logged on to the new User and going through the tedious wait while Windows updates all its files (even though they are up to date in the other user account; surely the Windows files should be tagged as "public" wouldn't you think?), and Java and antivirus and who knows what else will think it is out of date. AND copying personal files from old user account to this new one.

So the instructions are working just fine, and I am comfortable with the work.
 

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Glad to hear that you're now on the right track! :) Good luck and I hope the process works smoothly for you. One other tip: Create a second (backup) Administrator account. It's always good to have an extra administrator account, as a safety precaution on the odd chance something goes wrong with your user profile or you forget the password. Just be sure to put a reasonably strong password on it and make note of it somewhere so you don't forget it (when you don't use a password, it's easy to forget it). You can use utility software to manage your own passwords, or you can do it manually (which is how I prefer to do it, storing it in a password controlled file [like an Excel worksheet] with a mundane name and nothing said about "username" or "password"... just strings of text).
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion dv5t
    CPU
    Intel Core Duo 2.53GHz
    Memory
    4Gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia GeForce 9600M GT 512Mb
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800 32bit
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Momentus XT 500Gb
    Hitachi Travelstar HTS543225L9A300 250Gb
    Mouse
    Microsoft 4000
Thank you to every one who gave me a response. All of the suggestions/instructions are working. I do not see a way for me to go back to each response to update your reputation.

The work of getting the new user account set up is moving along. Would be marvelous if there was a clean way to get setups, preferences, all those seemingly little nuances also copied or moved. But I'm happy with the progress and will just continue to bully my way along. No different than setting up a new computer, actually.

And I will start shopping for a decent $$ external hard drive. There are some good looking 1Tb ones out there.

Happy Father's Day if it applies. Happy weekend otherwise.
 

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That's great news wjnm. I'm happy to hear that it's going well. :)
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
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