Changing A Windows 10 User Account Name (Profile) and Folder Path

As I mentioned in the previous post, Windows 10 sometimes does not create the username of the default account as you would like it.

If you want to change it there are a number of steps you need to jump through to do it. I've done this myself and all but two of the program I use day to day worked as expected. Docker and WSL2 needed a factory reset and reinstall.

Step 1 - Enable admin account

First thing you will need to do is enable/create/use an other Administrator Account. Here are steps in how you can do that with Windows 10. After this has been enabled, log into Windows 10 with it.

Step 2 - Sign out of the account you want to change

If you have not signed out of Windows 10 on the account you wish to change, you need to sign out that user, which you can do from Task Manager and Users.

Step - Update registry paths

Using Registry Editor (regedit, which you can run from "Run" Win+R), you need to go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\[S-.....1001]", you'll need to select the correct identifer from the list in this path. You can determine that by looking at the path in the "ProfileImagePath", as this happens to be the User Profile we want to change. Double click on the Key and change it to the path you wish.

Step 4 - Change folder path username

In "C:\Users\[username]" change the old path to what you wish the new path to be. It should be the same value you have selected for Step 3.

Step 5 - Update more registry paths

For that user you also need to change a number of paths stored in the registry. You can find this under:

[HKEY_USERS\[S-.....1001]\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders]

HKEY_USERS\[S-.....1001]\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

In both of these locations in the registry, you should see references to the older username path that was once in the ProfileList in Step 3. For every one of them you need to change it to the new path you have chosen. I know this is a bit of a painful bit but it will allow a number of apps to work without having to reinstall or rest them when we restart next.

When Step 5. is complete, restart the computer and login with the original you wanted to change. If all works as we expect and the steps have been followed above Windows should login without issue and most apps already installed should continue to work as they once did when the account was using the older name.

Step 7 - Clean up the windows admin account.

In my case I disabled the temp Administrator account I had created to do this work, this was important as I didn't set it up with a password, which is a big security risk if the account remains active after you have finished this work. You can disable the admin account via instructions I have posted here.

Enjoy!