Windows 7: User Profile - Change Default Location

Brink · 27 May 2010

How to Change the Default Location of a User Profile in Windows 7 and Vista

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Click here to read the entire tutorial

Last edited by Brink; 11 Apr 2013 at 12:00 PM..

Brink · 30 Oct 2010

Dizzy,

Are you sure that this user folder is not for the one that is listed as the owner?

If you are, then you can take ownership of that folder for the user account that it is suppose to be the owner of. Afterwards, check your "Sharing and Permissions" settings to make sure that it is set like the one from my post above for the user account that the user folder belongs to.

Be sure not to deny access to everyone and the account that it belongs to again though.

To be safe, create a system restore point before doing this so that you will be able to easily undo it if need be.

DizzyGuy · 30 Oct 2010

hey man this was entirely my fault haha im quite sure you gave me perfect explanation but what happened is when i initially started looking for solutions i was on this other website and it said something about how if im going to edit a users folder i must be on an alternative user to edit a different user, so when i tried to do what u said i was on a DIFFERENT account... i feel like an imbecile.. and i wasted your time, but i am very thankful, im surprised that after ur good explanation i managed to still mess it up..haha, anyways
good day 2 u

Brink · 30 Oct 2010

LOL, no problem mate. I'm just happy that you were able to get it all sorted out without having to do anything drastic like reinstalling Windows 7.

WindowsStar · 30 Oct 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by DizzyGuy

so when i tried to do what you told me i managed to find the properties section where the red arrow points at "share..." the button wasnt highlighted, so basically i was unable to click on it, i figured it had something to do witht he permissions so i denied all permissions and next thing i knew i couldnt even log into the account anymore, and on my OTHER admin account luckily i coudl still acess it, but it DID give me a warning that the folder was private, the WEIRDEST part was that on my guest account the account was fully acessible still, basically meaning that my admin accounts were somehow more restricted then the guest account, so i managed to undo the problem i made, and miraclously the "share..." button is now a button, and when i click on it the window it gave me somehow has my OTHER useraccount as the owner, so i still find myself wondering what to do cause if i attempt to add the account of the folder to the folder, it asks me "read" or "write/read" with my other admin account as the owner, which doesnt make sense to me since that account already has a user folder...

yeah sorry my english is bad.

Just my 2 cents here, but if you DENIED all permissions by one account and then tried to add them back using another account or are only asking for a lot of trouble and problems in the future. Unless you know how NTFS permissions work extremely well you may never get the permissions back to where you were or ever get them correct. My suggestion is a complete re-install of Windows 7. (A very very strong suggestion). Back up all your data and make a plan as to how you want to re-load Windows 7 that includes how you want to move the user profiles. Then you can install Windows 7 and move the profiles before you install all your software or move your data back. I hope that helps. -WS

Edit: Retract above, I missed all the new Tread on Page 2

Alain Quarre · 31 Oct 2010

my tutorials for changing user profile default location for all future user:

Go to registry @:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
change value: ProfilesDirectory
with your new desired location, eg : D:\Users

After that, all new users will have their profile in D:\Users and junctions in their profile will be correct.

Brink · 31 Oct 2010

Hello Alain, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Thank you. I have added this as OPTION TWO for new user accounts.

tamix · 05 Nov 2010

hi,

I followed the steps in the tutorial and changed the location of my defult user, and it worked great. Everything is runnig smoothly as always except for this one issue; each time I try to download something from Internet Explorer I get this message "Unable to download from www.*******.com
Unable to open this internet site. The requested site is either unavailable or cannot be found. please try again later.
this problem has started since I moved my user folder, and this only happens with internet explorer ,I can download normally using firefox.
your help is appreciated.

thanks

Brink · 05 Nov 2010

Hello Tamix, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Open Internet Options, and double check to make sure that the "Temporary Internet Files" folder is also at the new location of your user profile folder. If not, then change the drive letter to match.

If that does not help, then see if resetting IE may help.

If still not, then move the user profile folder back to the default C: location to see if it will work properly afterwards.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

tamix · 05 Nov 2010

hi
thanks for the quick reply, I've checked and the folder is in the new location. Tried resetting but it didn't work. so I moved the folder back to the C: drive and it worked. However I need it to work with the folder in the new location.

Brink · 05 Nov 2010

Tamix,

Do OPTION TWO in the tutorial to change where new accounts are automatically created at, then create a new user account to see if IE may work in the new account at the new location instead.

If so, then copy all of the contents of the old user account's C:\Users\(user-name) folders (including hidden AppData folder) into the corresponding new account's ?:\Users\(user-name) folder. After everything checks out ok, you can delete the old user account while logged in the new user account.

Windows 7: User Profile - Change Default Location

User Profile - Change Default Location problems?