Windows 10 changed my user name

I upgraded from Win 7 a few weeks back, but it ran painfully slow and I didn't have the time to get into it, so I went back to 7 using my latest image file. Now that I do have some time - I did the upgrade and clean install method, no speed issues whatsoever now.

During the first upgrade I used my Microsoft account, but I didn't like the way it only used the first five letters of my account name for the User directories. The second time around I used a local account and everything worked fine. Now, two days later I do a restart and my local account has been replaced with the Microsoft account that I used the first time around. But - the User directories are still named for the local account I used.

I have no problem with this, but what I don't get is how it happened, considering I reformatted both my hard drives prior to doing the clean install. As far as I can tell everything seems to be working fine as I downloaded a few small files and they saved in the Users/Dwayne/Downloads directory. My only concern is whether this will cause me grief down the road. Just starting to install all my software & don't really want to do this all over again.

Thx

Mr Grumpy said:

I upgraded from Win 7 a few weeks back, but it ran painfully slow and I didn't have the time to get into it, so I went back to 7 using my latest image file. Now that I do have some time - I did the upgrade and clean install method, no speed issues whatsoever now.

During the first upgrade I used my Microsoft account, but I didn't like the way it only used the first five letters of my account name for the User directories. The second time around I used a local account and everything worked fine. Now, two days later I do a restart and my local account has been replaced with the Microsoft account that I used the first time around. But - the User directories are still named for the local account I used.

I have no problem with this, but what I don't get is how it happened, considering I reformatted both my hard drives prior to doing the clean install. As far as I can tell everything seems to be working fine as I downloaded a few small files and they saved in the Users/Dwayne/Downloads directory. My only concern is whether this will cause me grief down the road. Just starting to install all my software & don't really want to do this all over again.

Thx

I have a similar problem. The Windows 10 laptop is my wife's computer which I use on rare occasion. Last night I went on the Windows 10 "app store" to down a Speed Test app and it asked me to log into my Windows Account. I put in my information, logged in, downloaded the app and that was that. Then today my wife turns the laptop on to use it and my Windows account has now replaced her Windows account. I'm not sure why it did this as I was logged into the computer through her account and just used my information to log into the app store when it asked me to.

I had the same thing happen after I logged in to the Win 10 'Store'. Luckily I had a Restore point saved, and used that to get back to where I wanted things.

From that point on, I will no longer use the Windows 10 Store; for anything.

Mr Grumpy said:

The second time around I used a local account and everything worked fine. Now, two days later I do a restart and my local account has been replaced with the Microsoft account that I used the first time around. But - the User directories are still named for the local account I used.

It is quite normal for the name in C:\Users not to change if you convert from a local to MS account and it doesn't cause any issues. In fact I set up Users as local accounts and then convert them to MS accounts specifically to get around the truncated names.

I've no idea how the system decided on it own to convert from a local to MS account though. That seems a bit peculiar. Perhaps you used some App (Store, Mail, OneDrive or something), signed in and took the option to convert by mistake?

The account name and the login method that that particular account name uses are two separate things. You can switch back and forth between Microsoft account login and local account login on the same account name and the account name won't change.

When the account is first created, if it is initially created as a local account, then the name for the account you enter will be used for the account name. If you first use a Microsoft account, then windows will use the first 5 letters to create the account name.

NavyLCDR said:

. You can switch back and forth between Microsoft account login and local account login on the same account name and the account name won't change.

How? I can't seem to find it.

Shardik said:

How? I can't seem to find it.

It's in Settings -> Accounts:

Wow. That seems easy. Can't believe I missed it.

Thanks so much!