Solved Can I delete the User folders if I don't use them?

[b0bl335wa993r]

I enabled the built in Administrator account just to explore it and it took about 70MB in my C drive again. My question is if I delete that User folder after disabling the account in lusrmgr, does that folder come again configure itself for the first use like it does every first time for every new user account? Or am I ruining the administrator account permanently by deleting it? Not for space saving just curious.

 

[UsernameIssues]

I have a Virtual Machine - so I...
...enabled the build in Administrator account
...logged on to it
...restarted the VM
...logged on to the normal admin account
...deleted the user folder for the build in Administrator account
...logged back into the build in Administrator account
...got a warning that it was a temporary user profile.

I try to use the tab named Advanced on the System Properties applet to delete accounts and their files. Doing it that way cleans up the list of accounts in the registry. You cannot delete the Default account or the build in Administrator account via the System Properties applet... so, you are left with manually deleting the user profile files for the build in Administrator account.

As indicated above, the next time that you attempt to log on to the administrator account, the system will create a temporary user profile. You can prevent this by manually fixing the list of user accounts in the registry, but using a temp profile for the build in Administrator account is both good and bad.

The good is - the TEMP user profile goes away when you log off. That saves space for those that are running out of it. There are some slight security benefits to operating this way too.

The bad is - some software installations that require a restart might fail since the temp folder under the TEMP profile folder structure will be deleted prior to the reboot.

 

[Kari]

I tested this, too, on a vm, absolutely no problems, no temporary profile.

What I did:

• Logged in to Windows 7 using my local administrator account
• Went to Computer Management > Local Users and Groups > Users, enabled built-in administrator account
• Logged in to built-in Administrator account so that the user folders were created
• Rebooted, logged in to my local administrator account
• Went to Computer Management > Local Users and Groups > Users, disabled built-in administrator account
• Deleted Users\Administrator
• Rebooted, logged in to my local administrator account
• Went to Computer Management > Local Users and Groups > Users, enabled built-in administrator account again
• Logged in to built-in Administrator account without any whatsoever problems

According to this the answer to OP's question is yes, you can delete the built-in administrator's user folder after disabling it as you can delete any user folder of a deleted user account. NExt time when you need the built-in administrator account you need of course first enable it and log in one time for the user folder to be recreated.

Kari

 

[UsernameIssues]

I tested this, too, on a vm, absolutely no problems, no temporary profile.

What I did:

• Logged in to Windows 7 using my local administrator account
• Went to Computer Management > Local Users and Groups > Users, enabled built-in administrator account
• Logged in to built-in Administrator account so that the user folders were created
• Rebooted, logged in to my local administrator account
• Went to Computer Management > Local Users and Groups > Users, disabled built-in administrator account
• Deleted Users\Administrator
• Rebooted, logged in to my local administrator account
• Went to Computer Management > Local Users and Groups > Users, enabled built-in administrator account again
• Logged in to built-in Administrator account without any whatsoever problems

According to this the answer to OP's question is yes, you can delete the built-in administrator's user folder after disabling it as you can delete any user folder of a deleted user account. NExt time when you need the built-in administrator account you need of course first enable it and log in one time for the user folder to be recreated.

Kari

I thought about doing that after I posted. I tested again and got your results (of course). I was coming back to the thread so summarize - but you did a much better job

 

[b0bl335wa993r]

I tested this, too, on a vm, absolutely no problems, no temporary profile.

What I did:

• Logged in to Windows 7 using my local administrator account
• Went to Computer Management > Local Users and Groups > Users, enabled built-in administrator account
• Logged in to built-in Administrator account so that the user folders were created
• Rebooted, logged in to my local administrator account
• Went to Computer Management > Local Users and Groups > Users, disabled built-in administrator account
• Deleted Users\Administrator
• Rebooted, logged in to my local administrator account
• Went to Computer Management > Local Users and Groups > Users, enabled built-in administrator account again
• Logged in to built-in Administrator account without any whatsoever problems

According to this the answer to OP's question is yes, you can delete the built-in administrator's user folder after disabling it as you can delete any user folder of a deleted user account. NExt time when you need the built-in administrator account you need of course first enable it and log in one time for the user folder to be recreated.

Kari

Thanks Kari, I was waiting someone with experience to confirm it.