Changing user accounts in Windows 10

Very informative and I will recommend it. I also follow this procedure and change user name successfully.

Trying to rename the folder says that it is open in another program, yet that user account is signed off...

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! :-D The part about Rename user account folder was perfect for my problem!!! :-D I wish you all the best and best regards ;-)

I just used "Managing user accounts with Advanced User Accounts control panel" to change my user account default value of 5 characters to 6 characters and everything seems be fine !! Thank you !

Thank you. I really appreciate your help and wish you good luck all your life!

In window 10 you can simply change the account name or password by using the User Account in the control panel. Windows 10 Uses the advanced Control Panel for creating and removing the User in Windows 10.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! The part about Rename user account folder was perfect for my problem!!

Ik used the regedit one on Windows 10, and now in stuck in a loop and i cant access my accounts... Help me please!!

Also tried changing the file name path using the registry key. It changed it sure, but breaks things in the process. When trying to log back into main account (I created an admin account just in case), it set me up in a temp folder. Then I copied original folder, renamed to what i changed in registry, logged back in. It opens, but start menu is broken! Had to change registry back to other name.

FYI: just tried your RENAME USER ACCOUNT FOLDER (as Admin) and as of DEC2017 this no longer works. Windows has disabled the option to rename the user folder.

How to change a primary user?

Besides explorer.exe, wmpnetwk.exe had handles to certain folders inside my user folder, so I had to end this task too before the system would allow me to change the folder name.

Will the changes stay the same if I don't restart the computer?

thanks for the info

It works! Thanks :D

Thank you! Great tutorial! You explained it very clearly and I should be able to do this no problem now!

thank you soooooo much, this was a headache. once again thanks.

The Netplwiz application worked for me! It took while but I finally found your post. Thanks so much!

1) It reverted back to the old user name. When the new user name is shown and then the password applied it then reverts back to the old user name before logging in. 3) there is no second "User Accounts" listed when accessing thru the Control Panel.

This was the most useful website for fixing this error: Windows 10 incorrect user name or password error message at log in

Its working for few doconds, after i type in my password, my username is changing again. How to fix it? Please help

While renaming your user folder works for the Windows OS, other applications may use app_data which is in your user folder, and the paths to those files may be stored in other areas of the registry which you'll need to fix, so do a search for "c:\users\myusername" and correct all references.

I can't seem to rename my users folder in windows 10. There is no option for me to do it when I right click and properties shows the name in grey (which I assume means cannot be tampered). Is there another way to rename it?

Just GREAT! i didnt find this information any where else! SUPER! Thanks Alot!

I have the same problem as Paula. I changed the username in Netplwiz and restarted the computer. However, it now shows the old username and says "Wrong password". There was no password at any time, so I presume it's trying to automatically login to the old username, then fails because that username no longer exists. Any ideas how I can login again?

After some days of changing the username/user and adding files to the new account, everything on the new account wiped out including the new user. But the files and folders in the old user account still remained. Please what can I do??

THX SO MUCH!

what a mess , why do users have to mess around with registry to just be able to use their full name ? Microsoft is still an epic fail

Very helpful, thank you!

I need to change account no I forgot my old one.

The solution using Netplwiz has broken my Windows. I can't use the start button anymore. Username and security ID are now different and Windows doesn't like this... really. Any solution ?

I have just tried to change the administrator/computer name and went to restart it, but now it won't accept the password and I cannot now access the computer. Can anyone help please?

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you! I've been trying to figure this out for an hour! This is the only thing that has worked.

Thank You Very much! so many suggestions in the web, many of them even risky! your suggestion is simple straightforward and the best.. it works!! Great!

Everything worked except could not rename the old user to the new user unless I went into Safe Mode and did it there. Now I am happy. Thank you for the post.

After i change it to the user name i wanted, can i still use the same step to change it back? Thanks!

Thanks a lot!

this is dangerous as there are other registry entries pointing to the user's home directory, at least if it has been used for a while. I found multiple entries from applications pointing to the AppData subfolder, which are all corrupted after this exercise.

Hi, i did the instructions above it did change my profile name and at the same time the folder name, but my problem is that it changed my start menu lay-out and removed some of my app, ex. Xbox, gameloft , etc.Sorry im new to windows 10 home. Any help how to restore my previous start menu lay-out?

I have been struggling to change name. Thanks for the helpful posting and I am able to change the displayed name

Renaming user account folder doesn't work well (brought up temporary profile and almost thought I lost all my data)

I managed to get rid of C:\Users\OldUser folder. Logged in as administrator, I used "Registry Workshop" to change the owner of keys showing \Users\OldUser from SYSTEM to ADMINISTRATORS, gave ADMINISTRATORS full control, replaced OldUser with NewUser, and reverted owner back to SYSTEM. Then removed the C:\Users\OldUser folder. Now the C:\Users\OldUser folder is permanently gone.

After restarting the PC (the last step), it automatically created the file c:\Users\OldUser\Appdata\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\counters.dat. All the other files remain in c:\Users\NewUser and NewUser account works fine. I found many references to OldUser in the registry. I replaced all of them with NewUser except a few it wouldn't allow me to change. I am unable to delete c:\OldUser folder

Thanks

Thank you so much for this information, keep it on.

I have done up to step 3 for windows 10. It won't let me change my username though. Thanks anyway, as it works fine until step 3.

Thank you. Very useful tip.

Thanks for this information, it was truly helpful.

Hi unfortunately i rename the user on admistrator itself Anyone know how to reset back

Thanks a lot, u have save me a lot of time.

Hi,I got my old company laptop which had Windows 7 PRO. I upgraded to Windows 10. Everything worked like a champ. I changed the settings to say this is not a work group laptop. No other changes were made (password or anything). It asked me to restart. I restarted the laptop and now the domain is changed. It comes up with my name and ask for a password. The old password doesn't work. I am locked

Thanks for your post. Much better than the misleading Microsoft instructions.

Help. I did this and now Windows 10 has locked me out completely. I can't get back in!

You can only change the original folder name AFTER editing the "profile" and rebooting. Since there are many many registry entries that do not get updated (still point at now defunct name), you much rename all of them too. BE VERY CAREFUL EDITING THE REGISTRY!

ALERT: Without registry edit, this does NOT update the folder name in \users\ nor any apps settings. Thus, although the user name has changed, the folder and app settings remain the original user. This causes major confusion because the replacement user name has no folders by that name. Editing the user name in the "Profile" in the Registry results in new \user\ folder being set up (EMPTY!).

Thank you so much! There's a lot of babbling on the internet and none get straight to the point like you have! Thanks again!

Does not work. Still there is my e-mail instead of my name.

@Patrick thanks I did it. But it's showing System error 5 has occurred. Access is denied. What can I do now?

@Tama: you could enable the builtin administrator account. on a command prompt run net user administrator /active:yes

i changed the users account from administrator mode to users mode and now i cant acess to any programs , not even manage other accounts in control panel. can u plz hlep me out of this trouble?

This method only seems to change the username at the login screen, but does not change the user folder name.

Thank you so much.

I recently acquired a used computer with a user profile on it. I set up my own password that gains me access to the computer, but all of the programs still appear in the file for the original user. When I follow your instructions, mine is the only name that appears, but in the c:user file, the original is the only one that appears (and the file can't be renamed).

The home version of Windows10 doesn't allow you to access anything within netplwiz. Can you recommend a solution to change the folder name under users? Using control panel only changes the display name but everything stays on the hard disk and within the windows system under the old name.

@Sandra: You need to type netplwiz in the search box and then click from the search results. For admin account check this article www.opentechguides.com/how-to/article/windows-10/63/win10-builtin-admin.html

hello I wish to change from "User1" to my own name in Windows 10. The advice tells me to tap netplwiz in the box next to the Windows symbol. But there is no such search box.I also wish to access the admin but there is only this one account. Where do I start?

You are an ass saver

I'm the only user on my computer and while using the commands to change my user name, i forgot to set user type to administrator before applying the changes. Now a can't make administrator type changes to the computer :change administrator type back to administrator. I can't user the "yes option" when asked about administration staffs

Thanks! This info was not easy to find, and I am so glad you decided to take the time and share this!

Thank you

The easy way to change users is == hold alt+Ctrl and press delete,

On Windows 10 you don't have the option to change the username.

Thank you so much for this info I looked every where to find out how to changer user account info.

same as April , THANK U SOOOOOOOOO MUCH

Thank you so much. I am from México and i couldnt find this información anywhere else, not even in english, until now. Keep the good work:)