Can you rename a Windows user profile?

December 27, 2015 updated by Leave a reply »

In previous post we’ve explained how to rename Windows administrator or guest account. However, just rename a user account and Windows won’t automatically rename the associated user profile folder. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to manually rename user profile directory in Windows 10, 8 and 7, if the name of your user account folder is not what you want.

How to Rename User Profile Directory in Windows 10, 8 and 7?

To make sure your renaming of user profile folder is consistent across the entire installation of your Windows and does not break anything, follow these steps:

1. Log on to another Administrator account that is not the account being renamed.
2. Open the Windows Explorer and browse to the C:\Users folder. Right-click on your user account folder and rename it to whatever you like.
   

3. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type regedit and hit Enter.
4. When the Registry Editor opens, navigate to the following registry location:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\
5. Under the ProfileList subkey you will find a few subfolders (starting with ‘S-1-5-‘) that are named with the SID of Windows user accounts. Find the SID for your user account whose profile folder you just renamed. You can simply open each subfolder and check the ProfileImagePath path for the correct one.
   

6. In the right-pane, double-click the ProfileImagePath value and change the user profile path to your desired name. In my example, I renamed the account folder from C:\Users\Tom to C:\Users\Tom_New.
   

7. Close the Registry Editor window. Logout of the Administrator account and log in with your user account. Everything should work fine – all your apps and files should be intact and your user folder should have been renamed.

• Previous Post: 3 Ways to Create New Administrator Account in Windows 10
• Next Post: Move the Entire User Profiles to Another Drive in Windows 10, 8 and 7

A user profile is a place where Windows 10 stores a collection of settings and preferences, making a user account the way it looks for that particular account. All these settings and preferences are stored in a folder called User Profile folder located in C:\Users\User_name. It contains all the settings for screensavers, desktop background, sound settings, display settings and other features. The User Profile also contains users personal files & folders such as Desktop, Documents, Download, Favorites, Links, Music, Pictures etc.

Whenever you add a new user account in Windows 10, a new user profile for that account is automatically created. Since the user profile is automatically created, you don’t get to specify the User Profile folder’s name, so this tutorial will show you How to Rename User Profile Folder in Windows 10.

Make sure to create a restore point just in case something goes wrong.

1. Sign out of the user account for which you want to change the name of the user profile folder.

2. Now you need to sign in to any administrator account (you don’t want to change this administrator account).

Note: If you don’t have access to an administrator account, you can enable the built-in Administrator to sign in to Windows and do these steps.

3. Open Command Prompt. The user can perform this step by searching for ‘cmd’ and then press Enter.

4. Type the following command into cmd and hit Enter:

wmic useraccount get name,SID

5. Note down the SID of the account you want to change the name of the user profile folder.

6. Press Windows Key + R then type regedit and hit Enter to open Registry Editor.

7. Navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

8. From the left pane, select the SID which you noted in step 5 then in the right window, pane double-click on ProfileImagePath.

9. Now, under Value data field, change the name of the user profile folder according to your preferences.

For example: If it is C:\Users\Microsoft_Windows10 then you could change it to C:\Users\Windows10

10. Close Registry Editor then press Windows Key + E to open File Explorer.

11. Navigate to the C:\Users\ in the Windows File Explorer.

12. Right-click on the user profile folder and rename according to the new path to the profile you have renamed in step 9.

13. Close everything and reboot your PC to save changes.

Recommended:

• How to Add a PIN to Your Account in Windows 10
• How to Reset Your Password in Windows 10
• Set Default User Logon Picture for all Users in Windows 10
• How to Add a Picture Password in Windows 10

That’s it you have successfully learned How to Rename User Profile Folder in Windows 10 but if you still have any questions regarding this tutorial then feel free to ask them in the comment’s section.

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