Windows 10: Renaming User Accounts and their folders

In a short while I will be purchasing a Windows 10 PC, but I am not sure if I'll be able to tell them I want to install Win10 myself or if they'll do it for me.

The point is, all the software I've collected, executables and all, is stored in my present Windows 7 folder:

And in various subfolders from this root.

If my main User Account is already set up by the time I get my Win10 PC, is there a way I can change the folder as well as the name of the User Account? I've heard the latter is simple, but more involved for the former.

So can this be done?

:)

 

Renaming the users folders

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Community.

You are trying to rename the User folder, which can’t be done through the File explorer. Whatever user name you use of your User account, user account folder will have same name. You can rename the Subfolder of the User account folder but not User
account folder.

If you want rename the User account folder, change user account name using the suggestion

Lets’ refer to these steps to rename the User account and check if that helps.

• Press Windows and X keys together.
• Click on Control Panel, click on User Accounts.
• Click on User account, then click on “Change your account name”
• If it’s prompting for password please enter and click on Yes. If you do not have password click on
  Yes.
• Enter the new user name.
• Click on change name.

Reference link for more information.

Windows 8 User Folder Rename.

Windows 8 User Folder Rename



Please do let us know if you need further help.

 

Is there any way to change the user folder windows 10?

No there is no way to rename the user folder in Windows 10, this is a bug in Windows 10, if you change the user account name, the folder does not get renamed. The only way is as you suggest and create a new user account and copy your files over to that user
, then delete the old user account.

 

You would create a new local user account with the user name you want, change the account type to administrator, and then copy the desired data into the new user folder. Then delete the old account.

 

Oh wow, didn't know it was as simple as that! Thanks!

 

If the PC comes with a preset user account, the only thing you need to do is to create a new user account using any name you want to. Even if you want to start using a Microsoft account instead of a local account, a feature not available in Windows 7, create your new user account as a local account and switch to MS account later when signed in to this new user account.

Important to remember is to make your new, final user account as an adminsitartor account; by default the first user created in Windows 10 will be an admin, all successive accounts only standard.

When you have created the new account and made it admin, you can then remove the preset account.

ToDo list:

• Sign in to preset user account set by PC seller
• Create your personal, new account as local account
• Still signed in to preset account, make your new self created account admin
• Sign out from preset account
• Sign in to your new account
• Remove the preset account
• Switch to MS account if preferred

Tutorials:

• User Account - Add in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
• Account Type - Change in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
• User Account - Delete in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
• Microsoft Account - Switch to in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

If the PC comes with preinstalled Windows with no user accounts set up (as in most cases with new PC), the first boot starts a so called Windows 10 - Clean Install - Windows 10 Forums.

Notice that setting your user account up as a local account is recommended also for those users who want to use an MS account. When an account is set up as an MS account, Windows uses a five character abbreviation for the user profile name and user folder name. An example: let's say your MS account email address is foebane.doe@anyemailprovider.com. Windows would in this case create the user profile and its folder named as foedo, three characters from the first name (before the dot), two characters from last name (after the dot), or as foeba, five first characters of the email address.

By creating first a local account Foebane, that will be the name of the profile and your user folder. Now when switching to MS account, that name will be kept.

 

I'm using Win7 with constant nagging for me to install Win10. What if I was to upgrade?

I should point out that I've already tried upgrading, but I think my user account was not full admin, so I was stuck with making changes to files and had constant messages about files being "read-only" and all that irritating nonsense, and I was crippled.

So how should I proceed if I wish to finally upgrade, if I'm getting a Win10 system later on anyway?

 

In-place upgrade, Seven to Ten, you will have no issues with your user profile name and personal data. Everything will be the same after the upgrade, your username, your profile folder and son.

 

But I did have problems, I just said.

 

You misread my post. What I said is that when you upgrade you will have no issues with your user profile folder and username because they will remain the same, intact.

That you have other issues with upgrade is another issue. Of course you must be a local admin, your account being an admin account to be able to upgrade.

 

But after upgrading, my account from the former Win7 install was NOT a full admin account, otherwise I would NOT have had the issue of read-only prompts constantly.

 

I have never heard / seen / read Windows 10 upgrade changing an underlying Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 admin account to a standard account. It just don't happen.

 

From a command prompt you can run the following command to see which user accounts are in the administrators group:

net localgroup administrators