How to rename user folder in Windows 8?
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When you log in on a Windows 8 machine for the first time with your Microsoft Account (by providing an e-mail address), a new user folder is created:
C:\Users\dciny_000
In previous versions of Windows,.You could choose the name of this folder (it was equal to my username). If I use the commandline often, it maybe quite annoying to you.
- Can you rename it to
dciny
? - Does simply renaming the folder break everything?
The answers are as follows :
There are two different approaches, depending on if you have ever used the Microsoft account on the given computer:
I have already logged into that account
-
Create a local user account with administrative privileges if you don’t have one already.
-
Reboot.
-
Login with local account with administrative privileges.
-
Win+X, G (Computer Management) → System Tools → Local Users and Groups →Users, right-click user, Rename.
-
Win+X, A (Command Prompt (Admin))
ren C:\Users\dzinx_000 dzinx
-
Win+X, R (Run)
regedit
-
Navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\
and find the SID for your user account. You can simply open each folder and check theProfileImagePath
for the correct one.Rename theProfileImagePath
value to your desired name, likeC:\Users\dzinx
-
Log in with your Microsoft account. Everything should work fine:
I have never logged into my Microsoft account
To start of, we only have one, local user account:
![enter image description here](https://i0.wp.com/i.stack.imgur.com/QWwJt.png)
I’m now going to add my Microsoft account.
![enter image description here](https://i0.wp.com/i.stack.imgur.com/Mcxuo.png)
Now we have our Microsoft account. Let’s open the Computer Management from the lower left corner.
![enter image description here](https://i0.wp.com/i.stack.imgur.com/rtL6Z.png)
Here we can see our new garbled user account:
![enter image description here](https://i0.wp.com/i.stack.imgur.com/u8IIU.png)
Rename it!
![enter image description here](https://i0.wp.com/i.stack.imgur.com/mr3nA.png)
You may note that no folder in
C:\Users
exists at this point in time.![enter image description here](https://i0.wp.com/i.stack.imgur.com/Qg3Bi.png)
Now log in with the new user account.
![enter image description here](https://i0.wp.com/i.stack.imgur.com/vPaLi.png)
Now my Microsoft account is named “superuser” locally and the profile is stored in
C:\Users\superuser
![enter image description here](https://i0.wp.com/i.stack.imgur.com/O2SOz.png)
I don’t have the Professional edition 😦
In the standard edition of Windows 8, the Local Users and Groups snap-in is not available.
In my tests, the following procedure worked out well. Your mileage may vary!
The procedure is identical to what was outlined under I have already logged into that account, except that I didn’t use the Local Users and Groups snap-in. Instead, I went right for the command prompt and renamed the profile folder. Afterwards, I adjusted the
ProfileImagePath
key in the registry.Additionally, I searched the whole registry for the full path of my userprofile (
C:\Users\Username
) and replaced all entries with the new folder name.I couldn’t detect any problems after rebooting and logging in with the renamed account, but, as I said, your mileage may vary.
What happens when I simply rename C:\Users\abc
to C:\Users\xyz
?
After logging in with the affected user, the user will be logged into a temporary profile:
![enter image description here](https://i0.wp.com/i.stack.imgur.com/iHvCG.png)
![enter image description here](https://i0.wp.com/i.stack.imgur.com/27yrc.png)
![enter image description here](https://i0.wp.com/i.stack.imgur.com/iHvCG.png)
![enter image description here](https://i0.wp.com/i.stack.imgur.com/27yrc.png)