Windows 10: Change Name of User Profile Folder in Windows 10

How to: Change Name of User Profile Folder in Windows 10

How to Change the Name of a User Profile Folder in Windows 10


When signs in to the new account for the first time.

A user profile is a collection of settings that make the computer look and work the way you want it to for a user account. It is stored in the user's C:\Users\<user name> profile folder, and contains the account's settings for desktop backgrounds, screen savers, pointer preferences, sound settings, and other features. User profiles ensure that your personal preferences are used whenever you sign in to Windows.

A user's profile folder also contains their personal folders such as the 3D Objects, Contacts, Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Favorites, Links, Music, OneDrive, Pictures, Saved Games, Searches, and Videos folders.

Since a user's profile folder is automatically named by Windows by default, it will not always be named what you may have wanted its name to be.

This tutorial will show you how to change the name of a user profile folder for any account in Windows 10.

You must be signed in as an administrator to change the name of a user profile folder.

Changing the name of an account's user profile folder will not change the account's user name.




Here's How:

1 Sign out the user account (ex: "Brink2") you want to change the name of its user profile folder (ex: "C:\Users\Brink2.BRINK-W10PC").

2 administrator account on the PC that you are not changing its user profile folder name.

If you do not have another administrator account, then you can enable the built-in Administrator to sign in to do these steps in.


3 Open a command prompt.

4 Type the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

Make note of the step 6 below.


wmic useraccount get name,SID




5 Press the Win+R keys to open Run, type regedit into Run, and click/tap on OK to open Registry Editor.

6 Navigate to the registry key below in the left pane of Registry Editor. (see screenshot below)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\<SID>

Substitute <SID> in the registry key path above with the actual SID (ex: "S-1-5-21-237214570-1361766723-3061440971-1015") from step 4 above for the account (ex: "Brink2") you want to change the name of its user profile folder.

For example: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\S-1-5-21-237214570-1361766723-3061440971-1015




7 In the right pane of the SID key (ex: "S-1-5-21-237214570-1361766723-3061440971-1015"), double click/tap on the ProfileImagePath expandable string value (REG_EXPAND_SZ) to modify it. (see screenshot above)

8 Change the current name of the user profile folder in its full path (ex: "C:\Users\Brink2.BRINK-W10PC") to what you want (ex: "C:\Users\Brink2") instead, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

Make note of the current full path and name (ex: "C:\Users\Brink2.BRINK-W10PC") and new name (ex: "Brink2") for this account's user profile folder.

You will need to know both in step 10 and step 12 below.




9 When finished, you can close Registry Editor and command prompt if you like. (see screenshot below)



10 Open File Explorer (Win+E), and navigate to the original full path of the user profile folder (ex: "C:\Users\Brink2.BRINK-W10PC") from step 8 above.

11 Right click or press and hold on the user profile folder (ex: "Brink2.BRINK-W10PC"), and click/tap on Rename. (see screenshot below)



12 Change the current name of the user profile folder (ex: "Brink2.BRINK-W10PC") to the same new name (ex: "Brink2") from step 8 above. (see screenshots below)








13 You can now close File Explorer if you like.

14 Verify the OneDrive folder location for your account (ex: "Brink2") is correctly using the new profile folder name. If it's not, then change the OneDrive folder location to correct it. (see screenshot below)
How to Change the Location of your OneDrive Folder in Windows 10





That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Change User Name of an Account in Windows 10
• How to Delete User Profile of an Account in Windows 10
• How to Move Users Folder to another Location in Windows 10
• How to Change Default Icon for User's Files in Windows 10
• How to Rename Folder in Windows 10

:)

 

Unable to fix corrupt files using SFC

Check these :

Change Name of User Profile Folder in Windows 10

Change Name of User Profile Folder in Windows 10

Windows 10 tip : Customize your user profile folder name

Windows 10 tip: Customize your user profile folder name | ZDNet

Hope this helps.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Brown -
Microsoft MVP <- profile - Windows and Devices for IT : Bicycle - Mark Twain said it right.

 

Microsoft account windows username.

Hello oyuu,

This would be for the name of your user profile folder at "C:\Users\<user name>".

You could use the method in the tutorial below to change the name of this folder.

Change Name of User Profile Folder in Windows 10

 

Hello John, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

Did you sign out the account you wanted to change the name of its profile folder, and sign in to a different admin account?

 

Hi Brink,

Yep, I solved it by booting into Safe mode and renaming it with win explorer.
BTW, I've been a fan and Big user of your seven and ten forums for years - best on the net!

You must have a team of at least 40 people working on these forums - amazing!

THANKS!

John

 

Great news John.

Thank you. We have a great team in the mothership. *Wink

 

...to add more info in case I'm not a unique case:

I tried restarting, shuting down and in each case only logging in with the newly created "ADMIN" account (not a very imaginative name). In each case I checked the SID name as still being changed to the desired name (it was) and attempted to change the folder name with the same error message "can't it's in use". A possible reason is I don't have any password for logging into the account whose profile folder name I'm was attempting to change or the newly created "ADMIN" account and I normally automatically log in to the account I was attempting to change.

I was going to get a boot USB drive and change it that way, but thought I'd give Safe mode a try first, and it worked.

Apparently Microsoft opens all account profiles when anyone logs on.

Regards

 

Usually, only the accounts that are signed in would be in use.

If you had switched user from the "ADMIN" account instead of signing out, then that could be a reason why it was in use.

 

So this will only change the user name and not the Login name Right??

 

Brink,

Works just as you said. Brilliant discovery.

Everybody else has always said this could not be done. I assume you didn't hear them & that's why you were able to do it.

[Josey - It just changes the folder path for the user folder. It does not change the user name / login name.]

Denis

 

Hey Josey, *Smile

Correct. As Denis posted above, this tutorial will only change the name of the account's user profile folder, and not the account's user name.

If you wanted to change the account's user name, you could use the tutorial below instead.

Change User Name of Account in Windows 10 Windows 10 User Accounts Tutorials

 

Thanks Brink and Try3 *Thumbs

 

UhOh,

After successfully changing the user folder name and the account users name (to the same "new" Id) I searched the registry for the "old" user's folder ID. There was A LOT of references to the old folder. After a while I found some programs inop due to being associated with the "old" user folder ID.

Think I'll just do a clean install of windows.

The reason I wanted to change the user folder ID is because on installation WIN 10 asked something like "What would you like to name this computer?", Unfortunately I took it literally and named the computer which turned out to be the user folder ID name.

 

Hello John, *Smile

If you wanted to change the name of the computer instead, you could use an option in the tutorial below.

Change Computer Name in Windows 10 Windows 10 General Tips Tutorials

 

I had already done that, it's easy and Microsoft even provides an easy way to change the name of the computer, they also provide an easy way to change the user name - but unfortunately there is no easy or otherwise way of changing the user's folder name (which also shows up in security IDs).

Have someone give it a try in Windows 10, but on a windows installation they wouldn't mind redoing with a clean install.