Windows 10: forgot my userid

I cannot remember my userid in win 10. It was always preloaded in win 7 so didnt think about it.
Any ideas? Please, it is awful.

:)

 

UserID confusion - Can Only Log In with One UserID, but settings and data Remain The Same for Both

Not sure if this has been answered elsewhere but it's a tricky problem and I need a pretty positive answer before I muddle things up more than I may already have.

My wife and I have two computers, WiFi networked, and I've upgraded both to Windows 10. I upgraded mine first, then hers. When she logs in, which she hasn't done since the upgrade reboot, she sees (we'll say) *** Email address is removed for privacy *** as her loginID. She has her desktop
wallpaper and all her shortcuts seem to work as they did before the upgrade. No problem, right?

Wrong! When I log into my computer I no longer have *** Email address is removed for privacy *** as an option. I have to log in as MRS.XXX. However, except for the desktop wallpaper -- which is hers, not mine -- all my icons, programs and data are as they were. It's as if the local machine's
settings and data remain intact regardless of who is logged in. I even tried creating *** Email address is removed for privacy *** as a user, only to find that it comes in as a completely new user, without any of my programs.

I could treat this as simply annoying; after all, we can both live with the shared wallpaper, but it's not right and I'm afraid one of us (me, probably) will change something and it will affect both of our accounts. Also, and this is important sometimes, I
notice that I'm (as MRS.XXX) no longer considered an administrator, although I never put that restriction on her account.

What to do???

 

UserID confusion - Can Only Log In with One UserID, but settings and data Remain The Same for Both

Thank you for your suggestions. I have tried them, but the results are a little confusing...

I managed to resolve (for the time being anyway) the issue of the incorrect loginID, so that my name, correct email address, and password are now the only choice at login. But the account itself is empty, with all of my settings and data still located under
the old account's c:\users folder. Since I have access to that folder, I've temporarily "resolved" the issue by copying all of my old data and settings to the new c:\users\xxxxx account and, although with a huge blow to my hard drive's remaining space, now
have access similar to what I had before.

I use the term "similar" because there are still some issues.

(1) Since most of my shortcuts and internal settings point to the old account's folder locations, I can't delete the old files and so must keep both copies. I also need to be careful where my files are saved.

(2) My desktop is now the same as it was, after manually arranging all the icons, but it is really the new c:\users\xxxxx\desktop, not the old one. Almost all of my file and application shortcuts appear to work, as they still point to the old user file locations.
But files saved to the Desktop sometimes save to the "other" desktop folder and do not appear on my actual desktop screen (This PC\Desktop) unless I locate them using Explorer to look up the new desktop folder on Drive C:.

(3) My Excel application will not open, regardless of where the copy I'm trying to open is located. I have a very old version of Excel (Excel10) but it has always worked before this account problem, including under Windows 10. The error I now get is "Microsoft
Excel has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available." Choices are "Debug" and "Close Program". Choosing "Debug" simply returns the same error message, this
time with "Close" as the only option. After closing, re-starting Excel brings a different error message, this time offering to start Excel in safe mode. Once this is done, Excel starts up just fine (with default settings which come from somewhere, but I don't
know where). If I then open Excel10.xlb (copied from one of the C:\Users\xxnewxx\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel to the desktop, as is the Excel10.exe file) everything is fine; my custom toolbars are as they were, subsequent Excel files I load maintain their
settings, formulae, macros, etc. Note that this is after loading Excel10.xlb; loading PERSONAL.XLS has no affect on the default "safe mode" spreadsheet, other than that it is listed as the current file.

I ran the Microsoft account troubleshooter, which returned "Issue not present" for everything checked, with the exceptions of:

Trust this PC

Your saved passwords for apps, websites, and networks won't sync until you trust this PC.

Add info Not run

Settings won't sync until you add security info.

No rootcauses found and created logs

These issues are shown as "Detected", but not repaired (automatic repair was enabled) and no matter how many times I run the application, the same error results and is not corrected.

I also tried Method #2, running netplwiz. That was before I was able to log in as myself (sort of) and may have been helpful in allowing me to do that. I'm afraid to try it again, in case it creates yet another Microsoft Windows account.

Another complication, is that my original Microsoft Office DVD #1, the one that contains the install files for Excel, suddenly can't be read by my DVD player. I've used this disk several times before, when installing add-ins over the years and it's always worked
fine. The DVD player has no problem reading other disks, including the other disks in the Office set. But now I seem to have no way to re-install Excel (which is what I would have done in the first place).

As I said, I am "kinda-sorta" up and running, but I'm sure these issues are gonna bite me in the you-know-where eventually and I depend on this machine for my living. Please help if possible. Windows 10 shouldn't be this way.

 

Userid or password?

Userid will show on the login screen.

 

It doesn't. It shows that I am logging in to JOE-PC and asks for a username.
Guess I should have been clearer. I can't seem to remember my user name.

 

Joe? Or perhaps JOE?

Windows appends "-PC" to the initial user ID, not sure if case sensitive.

 

I have tried all combinations I can think of.

 

Do I need to take it somewhere? Just frustrated.

 

You could try to open a Command Prompt at Boot.

When you have the prompt enter Code: C: cd C:\Users dir[/quote] That will tell you the user folders on your PC which in Windows 7 were the same as the user IDs if I remember rightly.

 

That will tell you the user folders on your PC which in Windows 7 were the same as the user IDs if I remember rightly.[/quote] Not sure if that would work, as Windows 10 cuts off any word more than 5 letters in the user folder.
Plus mine is completely different than what's in my user folder.....

 

I think he upgraded from 7 (that is how I read the first post anyway) so wouldn't the user ID remain the same as in 7? Windows 7 didn't have microsoft accounts so the user id = user folder name I thought.

I'm not sure as my name is only 4 long anyway but it should give you first 5 which might be a clue *Smile

If not another way is through regedit from the command prompt at boot but that is a bit more involved.

Open regedit, load the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE hive (as described here) and call it SOFTWARETemp for example. Then look in

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARETemp\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\

 

Hmmmm I will have to look at my 2nd computer than, I never did a clean install on that machine. This one is a clean install, so windows changed my user name, it cut off the last 3 letters/digits in my user folder.


I like your idea for opening the registry thou, but some folks are not very good looking or changing their registry. I'm always in their....messing around.....I'm going to look at my other computer....*Smile

Your Right!!! As long as the user didn't do a clean install when he upgraded the user name is NOT changed!!! *Smile

 

Dang. I have the command prompt but it doesn't recognize users
I go to c:\>users and get 'users' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
??

 

You are not typing command correct
C:
then CD c:\users
then dir

3 separate commands

 

I feel like a dummy. I enter c: (enter) and get c:\ from that I enter cd c:\users and it tells me the system cannot find the path specified.