File Explorer shows Unknown User Accounts

wiganken · 01 Mar 2020

Windows 10 Home 64-bit v1909 build 18363.657 OS which was upgraded from Windows 8.1 on 20th Aug 2019 and had updates and upgrades so it is up-to-date: -

User "Visitor" and the two redacted accounts shown are the only accounts in-use on my PC but, when I look at the "C:\Users" folder I see the following users which are not in use on my PC: -

a) "Admin"
b) "Guest"

Also see picture: -

File Explorer shows Unknown User Accounts-user-public.png

I believe "Administrator" and "Public" are created by Windows and are reserved names so I have no query with these.
It is possible that it was me that created accounts a) and b) and later deleted them but it has left these folders.

Q1- Can I delete users a and b in File Explorer?
Q2 - If it is OK to delete them is there a special way to do it?

FreeBooter · 02 Mar 2020

Head over to Control Panel --> User Accounts --> Manage another Accounts to delete user accounts on Windows.
You should know some software may create user profile to function.

wiganken · 02 Mar 2020

As I said there are only "Visitor" and the other two redacted accounts which are active. "Admin" and "Guest" do not appear so I can't delete them by the method you describe. I am certain that they were user accounts that I had created at some time but then later deleted them by the method you describe. They only appear when looking in the "C:\Users" folder but I do not know if it is safe to delete them via File Explorer or whether I need to go into the registry editor or if there is some other means of deleting them.
Logic says that I should be able to delete the folders but I know Windows is a complicated OS and I thought I would check first. Hence my query.

FreeBooter · 02 Mar 2020

How To Delete User Profile in Windows 10

wiganken · 02 Mar 2020

Your second post gave me the info I was after. Thank you.

I'll mark this Solved.

FreeBooter · 02 Mar 2020

You are very welcome!