Move Users Folder Location in Windows 10  


  1. Berton
    Posts : 14,521
    Win10 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home, Win7, Linux Mint
       New #1400

    I did a couple times with Win10 and fixed the issue by disconnecting all drives except C:/System/Boot drive until the install was completed. I also had an issue with a motherboard's BIOS in that the Windows install picked up the AHCI/RAID entry [2 drives were attached at install] then when removing the second drive months later broke the boot process, had to reinstall.

    Haven't seen anything about Win10 Version 23H2 except there probably won't be any more Versions after 22H2, Build updates most likely. End of Life/End of Support for Win10 has been announced by Microsoft as Oct. 14, 2025.
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  3. elvisvan
    Posts : 1
    Windows 10
       New #1401

    done every step precisely, no errors prompted, user folder still on c:


    Kari said:
    First, see this post for explanation for my longer than expected absence: Today [7]

    OK, some unanswered questions:



    When rebooting to Audit Mode (tutorial step 1: Install Windows 10), Windows Setup temporarily activates the built-in Administrator account, and creates a folder for it in C:\Users.

    When Sysprep is then run, and Users folder relocated, Windows Setup boots back to OOBE. User accounts are relocated, and the C:\Users\Administrator folder is now empty, because Sysprep again deactivated the built-in Administrator account.

    thanks for further clarifying this, but still in my case the "users" folder stays at c: drive although i carefully followed every steps and no errors were prompted;

    there's one part in the instruction confuses me when you write "Change the optical drive letter to something at the end of the alphabet, I use W:" do you mean "optical drive letter" as the c: drive or external usb flash drive? i think you mean usb flash drive so i set its letter from e: to w: and although the d: drive (which i labelled "elvis") already is d: i still change it to g: then close and reopen disk management and set it back to d: just to make sure as you instructed;

    but even with that when i re-start and finish the installation process there's no "users" folder in d: drive, only the relocate.xml file, folder "elvis" is placed at c:\users along with others like "administrators" and "default", i don't understand why i did it all right but did not succeed, what can be the loose end here?
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  4. Berton
    Posts : 14,521
    Win10 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home, Win7, Linux Mint
       New #1402

    there's one part in the instruction confuses me when you write "Change the optical drive letter to something at the end of the alphabet, I use W:" do you mean "optical drive letter" as the c: drive or external usb flash drive? i think you mean usb flash drive so i set its letter from e: to w: and although the d: drive (which i labelled "elvis") already is d: i still change it to g: then close and reopen disk management and set it back to d: just to make sure as you instructed;
    The Optical Disc Drive/ODD is the CD/DVD drive and it usually takes the next drive letter after the physical boot/system drive. Normally a USB Thumb drive doesn't need an assigned drive letter, just gets the next in line. Back a couple of versions or so of Windows if on a LAN a Mapped drive would be assigned Z: and if more than one Mapped drive would work back up the alphabet, Win8 or Win10 weren't that rigid by allowing any available letter.

    The biggest issue I've had with multiple drives in a Desktop is remembering to install the OS/Operating System on the only drive attached, make sure it works then add desired drives. An example, I have an older Desktop where the BIOS listed the drive type as AHCI/RAID, no choice to pick one or the other. It had 2 drives and Windows automatically installed as RAID, removing the second drive later broke the boot process and ended up reinstalling.
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  5. frostymm
    Posts : 3
    Windows 10 LTSC
       New #1403

    I did this a long time ago with my previous computer and it went perfectly. I just got a new one and I've had to go through the process quite a few times at this point. It definitely WORKS on an existing installation, my users folder is now on my secondary drive and it went great. BUT right after I do that, I lose a bunch of system programs from my start menu. Device manager is missing, Disk Manager is missing, default apps returns nothing, etc. I can still navigate to those things by right clicking the start menu or going through control panel but has anybody else run into this problem? Or know a solution to fix it? Thanks in advance!
    Move Users Folder Location in Windows 10-devicemanagermissing.png
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  7. Berton
    Posts : 14,521
    Win10 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home, Win7, Linux Mint
       New #1404

    A problem with customization is if things are added to the Start menu they usually are shortcuts and by moving things around the path to the file involved is lost. If an icon doesn't work right-click it and check Properties for where the file is located and edit that shortcut accordingly or locate that file and create a new shortcut.
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  8. frostymm
    Posts : 3
    Windows 10 LTSC
       New #1405

    Berton said:
    A problem with customization is if things are added to the Start menu they usually are shortcuts and by moving things around the path to the file involved is lost. If an icon doesn't work right-click it and check Properties for where the file is located and edit that shortcut accordingly or locate that file and create a new shortcut.
    Is this in response to me? There is no shortcut as far as I can tell, it's DEVICE MANAGER. Even in my working computer, it's not right clickable in any capacity.... ?????
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  9. Berton
    Posts : 14,521
    Win10 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home, Win7, Linux Mint
       New #1406

    frostymm said:
    Is this in response to me? There is no shortcut as far as I can tell, it's DEVICE MANAGER. Even in my working computer, it's not right clickable in any capacity.... ?????
    Site won't let me post a screenshot but there is a choice of Create shortcut on the right-click of Device Manager in Control Panel, at least on my Win10 Pro. And that works with many other choices on Control Panel icons. If that can't be done there must be some problem with Win10 or the computer.
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  10. frostymm
    Posts : 3
    Windows 10 LTSC
       New #1407

    Berton said:
    Site won't let me post a screenshot but there is a choice of Create shortcut on the right-click of Device Manager in Control Panel, at least on my Win10 Pro. And that works with many other choices on Control Panel icons. If that can't be done there must be some problem with Win10 or the computer.
    Okay, I see what I was doing wrong. Device manager actually shows up twice in control panel and I was right-clicking the wrong one. I was able to make a shortcut of that but now I'm still having the problem with the partition manager. It's a subset of administrative tools and apparently you can only right click the section itself (green text).

    Tbh I don't actually know what all I'm missing off of the top of my head and was kind of hoping this was a common enough issue that there was a full fix for all of them floating around that I didn't see XD

    Move Users Folder Location in Windows 10-diskmanagermissing.png

    - - - Updated - - -

    I have received the answer to my problem via elsewhere:

    Create god mode folder (contains all the shortcuts that are missing from start after following this tutorial).
    How to enable the legendary 'God Mode' in Windows 10 for all the settings | Windows Central

    Open god mode folder.
    Copy contents into Start Menu folder.
    Profit.

    We can thank good O'l Pualo from answers.microsoft.com for this one

    Thanks again for your help too btw
    Last edited by frostymm; 18 Mar 2024 at 15:42.
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  11. Soapm
    Posts : 312
    Win10
       New #1408

    Moving Profiles


    I have a Lenovo that I want to reset to factory settings (long story, not important). They have a reset option in the BIOS but I was wondering if I use it can I use method 1 to move the profiles to the second drive. Or do I need to download an image to a thumb drive to use that technique? If thumb drive, can I put the relocate file on the same drive?

    Also, I want it to have a local profile that logs right in without a password. It's a computer we use to stream our services at the church so security isn't an issue.
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  13. GugaJedi
    Posts : 10
    Windows 10
       New #1409

    Soapm said:
    I have a Lenovo that I want to reset to factory settings (long story, not important). They have a reset option in the BIOS but I was wondering if I use it can I use method 1 to move the profiles to the second drive. Or do I need to download an image to a thumb drive to use that technique? If thumb drive, can I put the relocate file on the same drive?

    Also, I want it to have a local profile that logs right in without a password. It's a computer we use to stream our services at the church so security isn't an issue.
    Probably not, since the Factory Setting will partitioning the disk in a default manner and also will be a unattended installation with no option for you to access the Admin PE option. Better to do it manually than use the restore option.

    Also the restore option in the BIOS only work if you haven't deleted the default and original restore partition.
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