Move Users Folder Location in Windows 10  

Marsha said:

Hello Kari,
Thanks for all you are doing to make this process make sense.


The (usually inactive) Administrator account is needed sometimes. Does it have the problem of Start & Search not working also. If so, can that special account be deleted and recreated?

The built-in administrator account works perfectly even after relocating the Users folder. Even if it were activated and enabled before the Sysprep, the sysprep process disables it and it needs to be re-enabled after the process.

The built-in administrator account can't be deleted nor can it be re-created.

Jonah said:

Hi Kari.


I've got a wee problem. I have an updated version of Windows 10 apparently. That means as I'm well aware that sysprep won't work. That's all well and good. However, as it stands now I'm in the Audit mode as of the above method. When I try to run sysprep to get out of it, I get the "can't validate your installation" error message.


What can I do to get out of Audit mode now? And is there a way to get sysprep to validate the installation?


I tried to delete the upgrade reg_dword, the upgrade key, and change a value in the registry according to this (How to run SysPrep on an Upgraded Operating System | Learn, Acquire, then Apply...) info before it set me into a boot spin so I had to reinstall.


Do you have any ideas of how I can get out of Audit Mode or run sysprep from here?


Jonah

To exit from Audit Mode, open an admin Command Prompt and give this command:

Code:

%windir%\sysprep\sysprep.exe /oobe /reboot

Kari

BlackSoldierB said:

I have downloaded the .iso file as you said earlier. But it still contains the install.esd file.

Did i do something wrong?

EDIT: Since this week, i cannot find the x64 version of the mediacreationtool nor can I download the Windows 10 pro version using the tool.

I just checked, the ISO downloads site works perfectly well, offering normal 32 and 64 bit ISO images, with a standard install.wim file.

Windows 10 ISO

derrydavis said:

I'm having some issues after following the tutorial steps. No issues were encountered during the process but after completion the 2 user ids setup on my machine aren't behaving well. The setup is Windows 7 upgraded to Windows 10 on C: then moved users folder to D:\Users. Item of note, the D: drive did have Windows 7 installed on it and does have the boot partition but all system folders have been moved to a temp folder. After the folder move the user accounts login but applications don't run or run slowly, the start menu won't pop-up, or the log-off menu doesn't work. Do you think a reformat of the d: will fix this issue? Thanks in advance.
Derry

This warning from the beginning of Method Two in this tutorial both tells what most probably happens when relocating the Users folder on an existing Windows installation, and gives a workaround to resolve it:

   Warning

In Windows 10, this method might cause existing user accounts losing Start Menu and Search functionality. All new accounts will be OK.

A simple workaround is to create a new user account for yourself after running the Sysprep to relocate the Users folder, make it an administrator account, then copy your data from the original user account to the new account, and finally delete the original account.

Kari

>>Problem solved, cause at the end of the post.<<

Hi everybody and especially Kari,

I have been really glad reading that it is possible to move at least the users folder in Win 10 to a different partition.
However, I have been trying to install Win10 and move the users folder for the whole day now and it is completely unaffected by everything I try.

First, I started with a clean install of Win 10 (method 1). When I changed to Audit Mode and ran sysprep there, I was left with a Win 10 unable to boot. Each time I ended up with an error message like session_has_valid .... (I don't recall the complete error message). I tried swapping the drive letters (because I originally aimed for D) and the result was the same each time I tried, so the Macrium image really saved me.

Next, I tried running a regular installation and wanted to use method 2. However, the users (or in my case of a german win 10 the "Benutzer") folder remained on C. I tried swapping the drive letters again only to realize that after a reboot with sysprep Windows assings "D" to my desired disk each time and that users always stays on C. I even copied the install.wmi from the .iso into the sources folder of my Win10-installation-USB-stick and the result is still the same. In the meantime, I have quite a few users in my users folder at C but still no users folder at D. In a really desperate try I even changed "Users" to "Benutzer" in my relocate.xml but as expected, it did not work either.

I really am at a loss here, is there anything else I need to keep in mind?
E.g. turn UAC off or some other Windows settings that might block sysprep?

Thanks a lot in advance,
Kurai

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
<settings pass="oobeSystem">
<component name="Microsoft-WIndows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<FolderLocations>
<ProfilesDirectory>D:\Users</ProfilesDirectory>
</FolderLocations>
</component>
</settings>
<cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:H:\sources\install.wim#Windows 10 Pro" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

>>I finally figured out that the problem was caused by a capital I instead of a small i in "Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup"

Kurai said:

First, I started with a clean install of Win 10 (method 1). When I changed to Audit Mode and ran sysprep there, I was left with a Win 10 unable to boot. Each time I ended up with an error message like session_has_valid .... (I don't recall the complete error message). I tried swapping the drive letters (because I originally aimed for D) and the result was the same each time I tried, so the Macrium image really saved me.

Hi Kurai, welcome to the Ten Forums.

It's really impossible to tell you what has happened when the only thing you can tell about the error messages is "session_has_valid ....".

The process is failproof when done correctly, exactly as instructed. In your case, the answer file shows you are using a 64 bit Windows 10 Pro, relocating the Users folder to drive D:, and your valid & original Windows install media is on drive H:. If this is all correct we have to dig deeper to find the reason for your issues.

Your answer file has one small error; I don't think that the reason for your issues but nevertheless, no harm in fixing it:

There's a line break missing, see the screenshot above. The command starting with <unattend xmlns should be in its own row / line. If and when the answer file is correctly written, it contains 11 rows, not ten as in your code.

To assist you I need to know more. What build are you using, where and how did you get the Windows 10 install media, the exact error messages (Deutsch ist OK, muss nicht in Englisch sein) and so on.

Kari

mennopython said:

Kari,
I know you have gone over the fact that the script works, but one line in the answer file in the Upgrade section "Move Users (and possible Program Data) back to the C: drive" is bothering me.
The script shows the new ProgramData location being under C:\Users. Shouldn't that be C:\ProgramData or does that not matter? The reason I ask is that my Win7 was originally under C:\ProgramData and still has a few files there from the "hard coded" install programs.

Thanks for the great tutorial. I will be doing my Win7 to Win10 upgrade in a couple of weeks when I have some time to spend just in case I mess something up since I will have to relocate program data and user files.

Thank you for pointing that out. It was an obvious mistake, a typo which has gone totally unnoticed. I have now fixed it.

As you mentioned, the ProgramData folder is by default located on the root of the C: drive. That line is only needed when upgrading Windows 7 to Windows 10 if the ProgramData folder has been relocated because Windows 10 does not work properly when the ProgamData is relocated. BEfore the upgrade it has to be moved back to C: drive.

You earned some rep points for this :)

Until now I've always said that I only have made four mistakes in my life, wives number 1 to 4. Apparently I now have to add a fifth mistake to that, a bad typo in a tutorial

Kari