Renamed User account, now want to rename its folder


  1. Posts : 9
    Windows 10
       #1

    Renamed User account, now want to rename its folder


    I renamed a User account by using netplwiz. It was all good - the user can easily login and see all his files.

    Now I need to rename C:\User\<name> folder accordingly, but it does not work. The user cannot see his files upon logging in.

    I believe that there must be somewhere a mapping scheme between Account name and folder name. Where it is and how I can cleanly rename the folder?

    My Windows 10 version 1903 (OS build 18362.959)


    Thanks
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 68,997
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       #2

    Hello March, and welcome to Ten Forums.

    The tutorial below can help show you how to safely rename the user profile folder of an account in Windows 10.

    Change Name of User Profile Folder in Windows 10
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 43,022
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       #3

    Hi, have you looked at the huge tutorial section?
    Windows 10 Tutorial Index

    This may be what you are looking for
    Change Name of User Profile Folder in Windows 10

    - what you wish to do, assuming I've understood it, is non-trivial and a disk image (which you should really be creating regularly and routinely anyway - Macrium reflect - free/paid + storage for image files) is strongly advised before attempting it to give you a means of recovery.

    (Oops- overlapped with you @Brink!)
      My Computers


  4. Posts : 9
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Thanks both Brink and Dalchina, I followed this tutorial, but something did not work in my case. I even ran two dummy tests, but none worked. Here is what I did:

    1. Created a dummy account user_A from settings/accounts/Add a user without Microsoft account. To check how it works, logged in under this account, it all worked good, created a test file and saved it in the Documents folder (which is actually C:\Users\User_A folder.

    2. Renamed it to user_B from command-line utility netplwiz.

    3. Signed out this account from Task Manager

    4. Ran wmic command-line utility as administrator

    5. Copied its SID

    6. From Regedit, found the path described in tutorial for this SID and in ProfileImagePath renamed it to user_B

    7. Manually renamed folder C:\Users\User_A to C:\Users\User_B in File Explorer

    8. Logged in as User_B. And I can see a test file that I created in step 1, but when I tried to open it, it displays a message "The system cannot find the path specified".
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 68,997
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       #5

    March,

    Usually, you will need to sign out of the account first before changing its user profile folder name to prevent possible issues.
      My Computers


  6. Posts : 9
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #6

    I signed out user_B but it still does not work. I even restarted computer.

    The problem is when I log in as user_B and check File Explorer, in Recent Files section I see the document that I've created under User_A is still in folder Windows(C:)\Users\user_A\Documents
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 68,997
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       #7

    This could be normal from "Recent Files" since they have the old location referenced still.

    Clear your recent files, and let them repopulate as you open the files to have them use the new path.

    Reset and Clear Recent Items and Frequent Places in Windows 10

    Does everything else work as it should?
      My Computers


 

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