Move Users Folder Location in Windows 10  

reesy said:

I can repeat the process several times and it's consistent, the copied user is slow, and doesn't have start menu so obviously missing some priviledges, no errors to speak of in the Panther logs..

Hi Reesy, welcome to the Ten Forums.

As you can see with some searching the Start Menu & Search issue, they not working, is quite common and occasionally occurs also in simple clean install with nothing relocated. But, as you have experienced, an almost sure way to get that error is to use Sysprep on an existing system. It works flawless for all new accounts but causes issue for existing systems.

Therefore my recommendation is either to use this method only in clean installs, or alternatively accept the facts and when doing on an existing system simply create a new administrator account, copy the data from the non-functioning old account to the new account and finally remove the old account.

You could try the free PC Mover Express to move data from old profile to new profile. Unfortunately the free version of the PC Mover requires two computers to be used and is not intended to move data from a profile to another on the same PC; if you have a spare computer to use, you would need to do it like this:

1. Use PC Mover to move your personal files and settings from your PC (let's call it PC1) to PC2, a second PC you need to temporarily use. Notice that the target computer must run Windows 8 or later
2. Create new administrative user on PC1
3. Now move the original user data from PC2 back to PC1, to your new user profile

Kari

That's nice, good to hear you got it working :)

   Note

Please notice that the method to relocate the main profile folder Users as told in this tutorial works without issues also in the new Windows Insider Build 10565 released earlier today.

TheForrestFire said:

Hey, so I just built my first desktop and decided to put in a 250GB SSD and a 2TB HDD, and move the users folder over to the HDD. I had already installed Windows 10 a couple days ago, so I followed method two from the guide, and now I'm having issues!

As I have repeatedly told in this thread, last time just a few days ago, a few posts before yours (scroll up to this post), sometimes when this is done on an existing system as you did, the Start and Search do not work on existing accounts but will work on all new accounts.

The solution is simple: backup all your personal files from your current user profile, open Settings (press WIN + i), create a new user account, change its account type to administrator (important!), sign in to that account, and import the backed up personal data to that account. Last step is then to remove your original account.

Notice that if your original account is an MS Account, you need first switch it to a local account before creating the new user because Windows does not allow two MS accounts to use the same email address.

Even simpler solution is to do a clean install!

Some tutorials if you need them:

• User Account - Add in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
• User Account - Delete in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
• Local Account - Switch to in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
• Account Type - Change in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
• Windows 10 - Clean Install - Windows 10 Forums

Kari

TheForrestFire said:

Ah, I'm sorry for not reading more :\

Is the reason that this creating a new profile method works is due to your method causing those startup files to be separated between the SSD and HDD automatically for new users?

No. How and where the user profiles are created is not the issue here. The non-functioning Start and Search is a surprisingly common issue in 10, I do not know why.

Using sysprep increases the possibility for this issue but it's the sysprep process itself causing it, not the relocated profile folder; even doing any other sysprep operations on an existing Windows installation without relocating the Users folder has the same effect,

TheForrestFire said:

Ah, that's unfortunate. It's really annoying. The windows key + i doesn't even work.

Possible workarounds for not getting Settings app opened to be able to create a new user:

• Right click on desktop, select Display or Personalize, they should open the Settings app. If it opens, then browse to Accounts, create the new user.
• Press WIN + R to open the Run dialog, type shell:appsfolder and hit Enter. Find the Settings app in the folder, open it, create the new user.
• Right click Start button, select Control Panel. In Control Panel select User Accounts; adding a user brings you to Settings app, create the new user.
• Right click the Start button, select Command Prompt (Admin).
  
  • Give the following command to create the new user:
    net user Username Password /add
  • Change the new user's account type to Administrator:
    net localgroup Administrators Username /add

TheForrestFire said:

So if I create a new profile, will it automatically be divided between the two drives? It'll still be the equivalent of having moved the user folder to the new HDD?

Once done, this method automatically creates all future user profiles in the new relocated location. They are not divided, they are completely on the new location.

TheForrestFire said:

Thank you so much for the help btw. I read through your responses and don't think people have thanked you enough. It's cool that you've stuck with this thread helping people for this long!

You are most welcome!