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#1
Replace Administrator Name / Profile
I am the sole User and Local Administrator on three W10 machines. All three names differ (and none have an associated Microsoft ID). For consistency I would like to make the admin name the same on all the machines. I am happy to create new names and profiles from scratch but would definitely prefer not to have to perform three Ground Zero installations of Windows with associated updates, re-installations of all apps and softwares, and so on.
I have looked at
Change User Name of Account in Windows 10
Change Name of User Profile Folder in Windows 10
but thought it would be a lot easier to try to proceed as follows. On each machine
and that would be that.
- Sign in using OldName
- Create a new Local Admin User named NewName
- Sign out of OldName
- Sign in using NewName
- Delete OldName and associated profile (with deletion of C:\Users\OldName as consequence)
- Personalise NewName as required (i.e. to match OldName; but happy to do this bit-by-bit from memory)
However, when attempting to log in as NewName at Step 4 I got the "User Profile Service failed the sign-in" error message. And moreover have lost the capability to log in as OldName!
Luckily I had a 2-day-old saved image of the C: drive and was able to retrieve that to get me back to where I started.
So: is the plan outlined above just too trivial to work-in-place?
It certainly would seem a lot simpler than the hellish procedure described in the 2 weblinks quoted - than which, I would indeed much prefer to pursue a fresh W10 install with all the subsequent labour of updates, personalisations, re-installations, etc. (But still worth it all, to achieve the standard admin usernames desired.)
Thank you! for any comments / advice.
Fergus
Edition Windows 10 Pro
Version 2009
Installed on 24/04/2024
OS Build 19045.5796
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