Move Users Folder Location in Windows 10  

Hey Kari,

I was following your tut about move Users folder into another partition while installing Win10 from scratch.

Is it possible to do it directly to a partition drive "E:" instead of "E:\Users"?
I tried writing "E:" on relocation.xml but windows was more than 25 minutes with the spin animation loading. Should I try with "E:" instead of "E:"? Is is compulsory to user a folder ("E:\Users") ?

Thank you

Kari said:

The profile folder will always be named Users. That is the default name you should use.

Irrespective of your language I believe. You don't put E:\Utilisateurs for example (at least I never did).

@Kari, Thanks for offering and maintaining this thread!
Two brief contributions:

1. Once again, for those who still want to try it: Don't attempt to move the ProgramData folder in Windows Ten. Restating what is in the OP and has likely been said over and over in this thread. I'm using LTSB (2016, rs1, 1607) and since I don't care about Windows apps, I thought I could get away with moving the ProgramData folder. Not possible. All I got was a black screen with mouse movement and an incomplete installation.
2. You can do this fully unattended, skipping Audit Mode. I incorporated the "Folder Locations" section into a known working, fully unattended 'Answer File' that I usually use for PC installs. By using the default D:\ drive location for the 'Users' folder (I don't have a DVD drive attached to the PC), the whole install process--including moving the user folder--happened automatically without having to go into 'Audit Mode.' I know this isn't super exiting for true IT gurus--the answer file just did what it's designed to do. Still, I'm always a bit surprised when MS processes work like they're supposed to. Heaps of times MS just leaves you scratching your head in bafflement and hunting the internet for solutions! Oh ... and thanks again to Kari, since I probably wouldn't have even tried to do it all automatically without having this threads known working, manual Audit Mode explanation ready to go if my approach failed.

Hello... Thanks for the turorials... I've used your Windows 7 answer file with success in the past!
But I'm a little confused as to why an imaging program is now mentioned in this Windows 10 article. I've never used one during a Windows 7 install. I already have the Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB installation ISO image (ver. 1607), downloaded from Microsoft. It already has two WIM files in the \sources directory: boot.wim and install.wim. Can I just use one of these? If so, do I still need to follow the imaging step? In previous version of your file for 7, there was already a line near the bottom which went: <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:X:/sources/install.wim#Windows 7 ULTIMATE" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
Can something similar be done with Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB?

Two days ago, I followed the instructions in Method 2 since I had just done a new Windows 10 install after my hard drive failed. Everything seemed to work fine, as a new Users folder was created on my D: drive, which is a second partition on my new SSD, with the C: partition obviously being the OS. However, after I rebooted, at least some programs seem to be saving files back under the appdata folder on my C: drive. I see some files dated and time-stamped as last night in both the C: and D: appdata folders (but with different time stamps). Any idea what is going on and how to fix it?

Just to clarify as I'd like to avoid using audit mode....
A typical setup for me is an SSD and a HDD. No CD/DVD drive.
I also plan to use my free digital copy by logging into my MS account, and use troubleshooting wizard after swapping out a motherboard.

So in the perfect world, it knows to automatically put the OS on the SSD making it C and then automatically make the HDD my D drive???
My plan is to:

1. Create the XML noted in the first post.
2. Customize it with amd64 for 64bit version and use D:\Users for ProfilesDirectory.
3. I will then name it Autounattend.xml
4. I will then create the Windows 10 media using the Windows USB creator tool.
5. After creating the USB for Windows 10 USB drive, I will just place the Autounattend.xml file to the root of the USB drive and I am done.
6. Boot up on the USB drive and it will install windows 10 creator edition

EDIT: An additional question, I was planning to re-use my HDD, Will this drive also be formatted or will it just leave it alone and try to map to Users? Again, I am doing a fresh install of the OS on the new SSD as I am changing my motherboard. I was hoping to leave my data alone on the HDD basically. it is a pure data storage drive and windows itself was never installed on it.

lomspark said:

@Kari, Thanks for offering and maintaining this thread!
Two brief contributions:

1. Once again, for those who still want to try it: Don't attempt to move the ProgramData folder in Windows Ten. Restating what is in the OP and has likely been said over and over in this thread. I'm using LTSB (2016, rs1, 1607) and since I don't care about Windows apps, I thought I could get away with moving the ProgramData folder. Not possible. All I got was a black screen with mouse movement and an incomplete installation.
2. You can do this fully unattended, skipping Audit Mode. I incorporated the "Folder Locations" section into a known working, fully unattended 'Answer File' that I usually use for PC installs. By using the default D:\ drive location for the 'Users' folder (I don't have a DVD drive attached to the PC), the whole install process--including moving the user folder--happened automatically without having to go into 'Audit Mode.' I know this isn't super exiting for true IT gurus--the answer file just did what it's designed to do. Still, I'm always a bit surprised when MS processes work like they're supposed to. Heaps of times MS just leaves you scratching your head in bafflement and hunting the internet for solutions! Oh ... and thanks again to Kari, since I probably wouldn't have even tried to do it all automatically without having this threads known working, manual Audit Mode explanation ready to go if my approach failed.

Thanks for these great tutorials; I keep learning from them!

I have two questions in regard to moving user profiles please:

(1) The latest builds (16251, 16257) have different screens presented through the installation process - which (of the latest screens) is the proper place to interrupt the installation and boot for audit mode? I thought it might be the screen that introduces Cortana?

(2) I have many, many files stored in my User profile between My Documents, Pictures, Music, etc. I would like to relocate my profile folders to "E:\Users", but I'd like to simply point to my *existing* on-disk folder set for the user profile I create during a clean install (i.e E:\Users\Jeff). It seems that a new, uniquely-named folder is always created. If you specify an online Microsoft account it is the first few letters of that email and if it is a local account the generated system name is appended to make the folder name unique. So for local user 'Jeff' this becomes a folder named Jeff-SYSTEM_NAME.

I really just want it to use my old existing folder so I don't have hours upon hours of copying - is there anyway to accomplish this? It seems like there should be a way since Windows can perform an in-place upgrade and retain the existing profile folders.
Thanks in advance.