How to Change the Name of a User Profile Folder in Windows 10


When adding a new user account in Windows 10, a profile for the account is automatically created when the user signs in to the new account for the first time.

A user profile is a collection of settings that make the computer look and work the way you want it to for a user account. It is stored in the user's C:\Users\<user name> profile folder, and contains the account's settings for desktop backgrounds, screen savers, pointer preferences, sound settings, and other features. User profiles ensure that your personal preferences are used whenever you sign in to Windows.

A user's profile folder also contains their personal folders such as the 3D Objects, Contacts, Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Favorites, Links, Music, OneDrive, Pictures, Saved Games, Searches, and Videos folders.

Since a user's profile folder is automatically named by Windows by default, it will not always be named what you may have wanted its name to be.

See also: Renaming a user account doesn't automatically change the profile path | Microsoft Docs

This tutorial will show you how to rename a user profile folder for any account (local account or Microsoft account) in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

You must be signed in as an administrator to change the name of a user profile folder.

Changing the name of an account's user profile folder will not change the account's user name.

Verify a profile folder in the C:\Users folder does not already exist with the same exact name you want to use. If you don't then the user profile folder you are trying to rename will get the computer name added on to its name.

It is highly recommended to create a system image before doing the steps in this tutorial to be able to quickly restore the image to undo the steps if needed since renaming a user profile folder name may have unknown side effects. For example, some programs not referencing the new profile folder name.

How to Create and Restore a System Image Backup with Macrium Reflect

How to Create a System Image in Windows 10

Here's How:

1 Sign out the user account (ex: "Brink2") you want to change the name of its user profile folder (ex: "C:\Users\Brink2.BRINK-W10PC").

2 Sign in to any administrator account on the PC that you are not changing its user profile folder name.

If you do not have another administrator account, then you can enable the built-in Administrator to sign in to do these steps in.

3 Open a command prompt.

4 Type the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

Make note of the SID (ex: "S-1-5-21-237214570-1361766723-3061440971-1015") for the account (ex: "Brink2") you want to change the name of its user profile folder. You will need to know this SID in step 6 below.

wmic useraccount get name,SID

5 Press the Win + R keys to open Run, type regedit into Run, and click/tap on OK to open Registry Editor.

6 Navigate to the registry key below in the left pane of Registry Editor. (see screenshot below)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\<SID>

Substitute <SID> in the registry key path above with the actual SID (ex: "S-1-5-21-237214570-1361766723-3061440971-1015") from step 4 above for the account name (ex: "Brink2") you want to change the name of its user profile folder.

For example: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\S-1-5-21-237214570-1361766723-3061440971-1015

7 In the right pane of the SID key (ex: "S-1-5-21-237214570-1361766723-3061440971-1015"), double click/tap on the ProfileImagePath expandable string value (REG_EXPAND_SZ) to modify it. (see screenshot above)

8 Change the current name of the user profile folder in its full path (ex: "C:\Users\Brink2.BRINK-W10PC") to what you want (ex: "C:\Users\Brink2") instead, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

Make note of the current full path and name (ex: "C:\Users\Brink2.BRINK-W10PC") and new name (ex: "Brink2") for this account's user profile folder.

You will need to know both in step 10 and step 12 below.

9 When finished, you can close Registry Editor and command prompt if you like. (see screenshot below)

10 Open File Explorer (Win+E), and navigate to the original full path of the user profile folder (ex: "C:\Users\Brink2.BRINK-W10PC") from step 8 above.

11 Right click or press and hold on the user profile folder (ex: "Brink2.BRINK-W10PC"), and click/tap on Rename. (see screenshot below)

12 Change the current name of the user profile folder (ex: "Brink2.BRINK-W10PC") to the same new name (ex: "Brink2") from step 8 above. (see screenshots below)

13 You can now close File Explorer if you like.

14 Create a symbolic link using the command below in an elevated command prompt. This symbolic link will show as a folder shortcut with the old profile name so anything that still references the old user profile folder name will be automatically redirected to the new user profile folder name.

This step is required to create a shortcut folder with the old user profile folder name as a safety measure to link the old user profile folder name to the new user profile folder name. This way if something still references the old user profile folder name it will be automatically redirected to the new user profile folder name to prevent getting a "cannot find" type error.

mklink /d "Full path of old profile folder name" "full path of new profile folder name"

Substitute Full path of old profile folder name in the command above with the actual full path of the old user profile folder name (ex: "C:\Users\Brink2.BRINK-W10PC").

Substitute full path of new profile folder name in the command above with the full path of the new user profile folder name (ex: "C:\Users\Brink2").

For example: mklink /d "C:\Users\Brink2.BRINK-W10PC" "C:\Users\Brink2"

15 Verify the OneDrive folder location for your account (ex: "Brink2") is correctly using the new profile folder name. If it's not, then change the OneDrive folder location to correct it. (see screenshot below)

How to Change the Location of your OneDrive Folder in Windows 10

That's it,
Shawn Brink

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