Windows 7 - How to change user account actual file name

I noticed that when I changed my user account name, the actual file name did not change and I would to change it to be the same as the user account name. And Windows 7 doesn't seem to want to let me change the actual user account file name.

So right now, my user account name is "Peter" but the user account file name is "Peter DV8" and I would like to have that also be simply "Peter." When I right click on the folder "Peter DV8," there is no option presented to rename the folder.

Can anyone advise me on how to get that folder renamed?

You would have to create a new user and then copy the profile over to the new one.


I think it is very similar....
this one talks about windows XP

Well, I tried that by first changing my present user account name back to "Peter DV8" so I could create a new user account with the name "Peter," but when I created the new "Peter" account, the folder that was created for that account was named Peter.PeterDV8 which is not desirable. PeterDV8 is the computer name. I'm not understanding why it simply doesn't let me create a user account with the name "Peter" and the folder name "Peter."

Edit: Ok, it let me rename the new Peter user account folder to simply Peter so I think I'm on my way to getting this set up the way I want. Now I just have to see if everything works OK if I copy over my stuff from the Peter DV8 account over to the Peter account.

Don't think it is possible if I understand your Q correctly. Have a look here, and in particular Kari's excellent response:
created a new user but docs still saved in old user

User folder name can not be changed. Please read this post: created a new user but docs still saved in old user

Kari

Thank you for pointing me to that post. I understand.

I thought I would try to create a new user account with my desired user name and the new user account folder was correctly created when I logged into that account for the first time. Then I copied everything in the old user account over to the new user account but despite that, the new account did not work correctly. It kept creating a temporary profile every time I logged into that account. So I gave up and just deleted it and now I'm back to how everything was originally. I guess I'll just have to live with not having my user account folder have the name I would prefer.

I still don't understand why copying everything from the old account over to the new account I created, didn't function just like the old account though.

I'm still not sure I fully understand but I would again point out Kari's previous post to my initial thread:

The reasoning behind this is that an account is identified to Windows as a SID, that SID is linked to a profile folder in the registry. In WinXP the location of that link is HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList In that key is a list of subkeys that are alphanumeric codes knows as SIDs (or Security IDs), each one is for a different account on the machine. If you REALLY wanted to, you could change the path there and then copy al lthe files from the old path to the new path, this would require second account with administrative permissions though, AT THE LEAST.

Basically, you can change the account NAME all day long but as long as the SID stays the same the profile path will as well.

Let's try to simplify this.

User folders are not created when you create a new user account. Instead, the user folders are created when you log in to this new account first time, when you see the Welcome Screen message "Preparing your desktop...".

When a user account is made and the user folders created i.e. when the new user logs in the first time, it's final. The user folder stays forever with that name. If you change the name of the user account it only changes the name of the user, but the folders keep their original name. There is no way to go around this.

For instance, the new user account was created using the name "Bill". Before "Bill" logs in first time, the user folders are not created. An administrative user can change the name of this account, and nothing happens. User folders are not created.

But when Bill logs in the first name, the user folder C:\Users\Bill is created. This creation is final, Bill's folder is going to be C:\Users\Bill forever. No matter if he chooses to change his username.

Bill wants now to change his user name. He changes it to "Billy the Kid". No matter. When logging in, he has to give credentials of "Billy the Kid", but when you look at the Users folder, you'll see his user folder is still named "Bill. He can change his user name on a daily basis, but the user folder is always going to be C:\Users\Bill".

Confusing? I'll try to make it simple:

• Creating an user account does not create the user folder
• User folder is created when the user logs in the first time
• When user folder is created i.e. when user logs in the first time, the naming of the folder is final. You can change the name of the user account, but the name of his folder stays as it was when created

I'm sorry if this sounds a bit confusing.

Kari

Thanks kindly Kari for the detailed explanation, very kind. Hope the OP appreciates also.

^What I meant was I was a little bit confused by the OP's query, not your previous excellent answer (which I quoted) in my previous thread (above).