Windows 10: is it possible to change user's name in windows 10 ?

Hello Moby, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

It's fine, but just won't rename the %UserProfile% folder.

 

One wonders why he posted it then.
I have the problem on my Surface Pro after I used a Microsoft engineer to sort out Store and Update problems by remote.
I'll give your listed suggestion a go.
Thanks
Moby

 

He obviously posted it because he did not understand the question. It does NOT work. That method will change the sign in name, but not the the user file name, which remains unchanged -- thanks to Microsoft meddling in everything.

I am new with Win 10 and Office 2016 (up from Office 2003!). I am astounded at the way Microsoft seems to have taken control of my computer. It has automatically reconfigured my Gmail accounts (without asking me), etc. I am in a constant state of stress after hours and hours of trying to configure this thing. This business with a short piece of my Microsoft sign in email account for a username is just another insult.

 

Welcome to TenForums @TongueThaied

To avoid that, when starting Windows for the first time on a new PC just out of the box you should initially create a Local Account, not a Microsoft one. You can choose any name you want for that and it will be used as the name of your user folder. You can then switch it to sign in with a Microsoft account and it will retain your original folder name.

But you didn't do that, by the sounds of things. If you want, you can still put things the way you'd like. Make yourself a new local account in your chosen name, make it an administrator, sign in and copy you documents across to the new user folder, then use that account from now on. You can switch the new account to sign in with a Microsoft account once you are happy with it.

Add Local Account or Microsoft Account in Windows 10
Change Account Type in Windows 10
Switch to Microsoft Account in Windows 10

 

Hello TongueThaied, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

Are you wanting to change the name if the account's profile folder?

*Arrow Change Name of User Profile Folder in Windows 10 User Accounts Tutorials

 

Thanks, but no. What I and MANY others would like to do is change the user name imposed by Microsoft here: C:\Users\<user name>

In THAT location. What I ended up with is a meaningless and annoying scrap of an email address I used to sign into MS. It now appears to me that changing this is impossible, unless one wants to uninstall Win 10 and reinstall using the "local" option. That is a gargantuan task and simply not worth it. Changing the profile name is easy.

 

That's what the tutorial I posted will do. It will change the name of the "C:\Users\<user name>" profile folder of the account.

This wouldn't be the user name of the account though.

 

My apologies. I was looking at the wrong tutorial. The one you recommend here worked like a dream. It is exactly what rezpower, who started this thread was looking for. But BEWARE if you run Office 2016! Changing this name: "C:\Users\<user name>" completely disabled Outlook 2016. When I try to start Outlook, a dialogue box with this pops up: "Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window. The set of folders cannot be opened. The path specified for the file C:\Users\my old name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\my Microsoft Account sign in email address.ost is not valid." I suppose that was predictable, given the weirdness of Outlook.

I tried changing the path by editing the registry with a "ForceOSTPath" using the correct path, but it didn't work. Six hours later, I think I might just uninstall Office 2016 professional Plus, toss it in the ashcan and go back to Office 2003 or try Open Office. My frustration is beyond description.

By the way, everything else works fine. Word saves to the the proper folder, etc. It is only Outlook that is screwed. Ironically, Outlook is my most valued and used program and now I am hogtied. No email. No contacts.

 

If you haven't already, you might try a repair install of Office 2016 to see if that may sort it out for you.

 

Whenever I get office issues, I have found only reliable way to sort them is to completely uninstall using Revo Uninstaller (as Windows uninstaller leaves too much detritus in registry etc), and reinstall from scratch.

 

Yeah I tried the MS repair, the MS uninstall reinstall, and predictably it did not work. I have Revo and was thinking about doing exactly what you recommend. But guess what? When I reinstall Outlook, it is going to create still another user account from my MS sign in. Grrrrr! The problem is, MS no longer give the user any installation options. There is a method to its madness: It wants everybody to be running the exact same versions of its software in exactly the same configurations. Frankly, Microsoft no longer cares about people like me. I am an "undesirable."

I suppose I can reinstall it, allow MS to create still another User Acct, use a registry force to have all future Outlook data saved to my D drive (C is an SSD and I don't want to fill it with Outlook data), the hide the new User Acct so I do not have to look at it.

The whole business with MS these days is a bit of a Kaftaesque nightmare. Maybe it is time to abandon Microsoft and go to Ubuntu and Open Office.