Windows 10: Delete User Account in Windows 10

How to: Delete User Account in Windows 10

How to Delete a User Account in Windows 10


You need a user account to use Windows, and if you share a single PC with other people, each person should have their own account. Each person can customize their account with their own settings and preferences, like a desktop background or screen saver. User accounts also help control which files and apps each person can use and what changes they can make to the PC.

If you have a user account on your PC that is not being used, you can permanently remove it by deleting it.

This tutorial will show you different ways on how to delete a user account to remove it from your Windows 10 PC.

You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to delete a user account.

You will not be able to delete a user account that is currently signed in. You will need to sign out the user first.

*Warning Be sure to always have at least one enabled administrator account on the PC to avoid not being able to perform actions that require administrator rights.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: How to Remove a User Account in Settings
• Option Two: How to Delete a User Account in Control Panel
• Option Three: How to Delete a User Account in Local Users and Groups
• Option Four: How to Remove a User Account in Netplwiz
• Option Five: How to Delete a User Account in Command Prompt
• Option Six: How to Delete a User Account in PowerShell

OPTION ONE [/i] How to Remove a User Account in Settings
1. Open Settings, and click/tap on the Accounts icon.

2. Click/tap on Family & other people on the left side, click/tap on an account (ex: "Brink2") you want to delete on the right side, and click/tap on Remove. (see screenshot below)



3. Click/tap on Delete account and data to confirm. (see screenshot below)



4. When finished, you can close Settings if you like.





OPTION TWO [/i] How to Delete a User Account in Control Panel
1. Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click/tap on the User Accounts icon.

2. Click/tap on the Manage another account link. (see screenshot below)



3. If prompted by UAC, click/tap on Yes.

4. Click/tap on a user (ex: Example) you want to delete. (see screenshot below)



5. Click/tap on the Delete the account link. (see screenshot below)



6. Click/tap on Delete Files or Keep Files for what you want to do with the user account's personal files. (see screenshot below)



7. Click/tap on Delete Account to confirm. (see screenshots below)






8. When finished, you can close the Control Panel if you like.





OPTION THREE [/i] How to Delete a User Account in Local Users and Groups
1. Open Local Users and Groups, and click/tap on the Users folder in the left pane to open it. (see screenshot below)



2. Click/tap on a user (ex: Example) you want to delete in the middle pane to select it, click/tap on More Actions under the same user's name (ex: Example) in the right "Actions" pane, and click/tap on Delete. (see screenshot below)



3. Click/tap on Yes to confirm. (see screenshot below)



4. When finished, you can close the Local Users and Groups if you like.





OPTION FOUR [/i] How to Remove a User Account in Netplwiz
1. Type netplwiz in the search box (Windows+S) in your Start menu or on your taskbar, and press Enter.

2. If prompted by UAC, click/tap on Yes.

3. Check the Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer box. (see screenshot below)



4. Click/tap on a user (ex: Example) you want to delete, and click/tap on Remove. (see screenshot below)



5. Click/tap on Yes to confirm. (see screenshot below)



6. If you set Windows to automatically sign in to a user account at startup, then you will need to set this again when finished.

7. When finished, you can close Netplwiz if you like.





OPTION FIVE [/i] How to Delete a User Account in Command Prompt
1. Open an elevated command prompt.

2. In the elevated command prompt, copy and paste the command below, and press Enter to see a list of all user account names on the PC. Make note of the account name you want to delete. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow net users




3. Do step 4 or step 5 below depending on if the user is joined to a domain or not.


4. To Delete a User Account
A) In the elevated command prompt, type the command below, press Enter, and go to step 6 below. (see screenshot below)

*Arrow net user "UserName" /delete

*note Substitute UserName in the command above with the actual user name from step 2 you want to delete.

For example: net user "Example" /delete





5. To Delete a Domain User Account
A) In the elevated command prompt, type the command below, press Enter, and go to step 6 below.

*Arrow net user "UserName" /delete /domain

*note Substitute UserName in the command above with the actual domain user name from step 2 you want to delete.

For example: net user "Example" /delete /domain
6. When finished, you can close the elevated command prompt if you like.





OPTION SIX [/i] How to Delete a User Account in PowerShell

*note For more Remove-LocalUser command options and details, see: Add-Remove-LocalUser - Microsoft Developer Network
1. Open an elevated PowerShell.

2. In the elevated PowerShell, copy and paste the command below, and press Enter to see a list of all user account names on the PC. Make note of the account name you want to delete. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow Get-LocalUser




3. Type the command below into the elevated PowerShell, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow Remove-LocalUser -Name "UserName"

*note Substitute UserName in the command above with the actual user name from step 2 you want to delete.

For example: Remove-LocalUser -Name "Brink2"
4. When finished, you can close the elevated PowerShell if you like.





That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Add a Local Account or Microsoft Account in Windows 10
• How to Add a Guest Account in Windows 10
• How to Enable or Disable Built-in Elevated Administrator Account in Windows 10
• How to View Full Details of All User Accounts in Windows 10
• How to Check if User is a Local Account or Microsoft Account in Windows 10
• How to Enable or Disable User Accounts in Windows 10
• How to Delete User Profile of an Account in Windows 10
• How to Add or Remove Users from Groups in Windows 10

:)

 

Creating and removing a user account in Windows 10

From a web search:

How to delete user accounts in Windows 10

How to Delete a User Account in Windows 10How
to Delete a User Account in Windows 7, 8, or 10

etc.

and ...

Windows 10: Add User Account in Windows 10

HOW TO CREATE A NEW USER ACCOUNT IN WINDOWS 10 ON YOUR NEW COMPUTER

etc.

 

How do you change the Microsoft account associated with an HP computer?

Here are some results obtained with a search engine:

How to delete user accounts in Windows 10

Delete user account in Windows 10

How to delete a user account in Windows 7, 8 or 10

Just so you understand, these steps remove a user account from the computer. If you remove a local user account, it's gone. If you remove a Microsoft account, the account still exists, it's just not on the computer. That's because a Microsoft account is
just Microsoft's name for a cloud account, which exists on the internet and is accessed through a user account.

 

Hello Tully, *Smile

Are you able to sign out and switch users (if available) to delete the account afterwards?

 

Is it possible to delete or change the name of the Administrators account

 

Hello meebers, *Smile

Just to clarify, do you mean the built-in "Administrator", or just the other normal administrator accounts?

If you have another administrator account to sign in to, then you can delete another administrator account.

 

I am assuming the the administrator account that was created during the first time W10 was set up. (the one that appears on my desk top when signing in and is the default email address). Going to make an image and try to configure it. Tx...

 

meebers,

Yeah, that's just a dummy account provided by the OEM to setup Windows with. You could create a new account for yourself, sign out, sign in to the new account, then delete the old one. *Smile

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5...dows-10-a.html

 

Tx for the info and link!

 

Has any of this changed for Creators Update? I may need to delete a user account on a PC with the update. Unfortunately I am not in front of a PC running V1703 to check but I don't think the option to remove was in the family and other users settings, only to block. It's my wife's account (part of our family group) which may have some slight corruption so we may just delete her user account and then re-create it. Just trying to think of the easiest and quickest way to do this without upsetting windows!


I've never dabbled in this before but am I better off deleting user profile in order to achieve my goal? My wife's store app has issues and I think maybe easiest thing is start again for her seeing as there is nothing critical on her current user account.

cheers,
Wayne

 

Hello Wayne, *Smile

Yep, everything is still the same in the W10 CU.

It would be best that you are signed in to an administrator account to delete her account from.

In addition, be sure to back up anything she doesn't want to lose in her personal folders before deleting the account.