User Profile - Change Default Location

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

   Information

A user profile is the main C:\Users\(user-name) folder of a user account that contains all of the account's settings, shortcuts, information, and user folders (ex: My Music) with the files in them.

This will show you how to Move the default location of a user profile in Windows 7 and Vista to another location of your choice so it will be stored and used from the new location instead.

This can be handy if you are low on free space on your C: drive.

You must be logged in as an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial.

   Warning

Before doing this, you should create a system image to be safe. This way you can do a system image recovery to undo any mistake you might make in the instructions below that could result in the user profile you are moving, or Windows, to no longer work.

   Note

The drive or partition that you move the user profile folder(s) to, will now be included in a system image if created since it will now be considered a system drive.

   Tip

If you are just wanting to save HDD space from the files in your user folders, then you might consider this below to be able to access the files from your libraries with the files actually located where you like instead. This way you will not have to worry about any potential issues that come with moving user folder locations.

• Create a new folder at any location you want.
• Move any files you want into the new folder.
• Include the new folder into a library of your choice.
• If you like, you can also set the new folder to be the default "save" to location for the library as well.

OPTION ONE

For Already Existing User Accounts

   Warning

Some of the programs you have installed may not work properly after moving your user profile folder since they are still looking for their information in the user profile folder's original AppData folder location which of course no longer exists.

If you have this problem afterwards, then you may be able to uninstall and reinstall these programs, or use OPTION TWO in the tutorial to create a new user account and create new shortcuts for the programs to fix this.

Method One

To Change the Default Location of an Existing User Profile

1. Log on to the user account that you want to move. In Windows Explorer, navigate to it's C:\Users\(user-name) folder, right click on the user folder, click on Share with and Nobody.

2. Log off.

3. Log on to an administrator account that you are not moving it's user folder for.
NOTE: If you do not have another administrator account to use, then you will need to create a new account first and log in to it. When done with the tutorial, you can delete the new account.

4. In Windows Explorer, navigate to the C:\Users\(user-name) folder (ex: C:\Users\User account to move) that you want to move. Right click on it and click on Copy. (see screenshot below)

5. In Windows Explorer, navigate to the new location (ex: E: drive) that you want to move the C:\Users\(user-name) folder to. Right click on a empty space in the main window (middle), and click on Paste. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: This should be another internal hard drive or partition.

6. If prompted, click on Continue. (see screenshot below)

7. If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes (Windows 7) or Continue (Vista).

8. The C:\Users\(user-name) folder (step 4) is now copied over to the new location (ex: E:\User account to move). You can close Windows Explorer. (see screenshot below)

9. Open the Start Menu, then type regedit in the search box and press enter.

10. If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes (Windows 7) or Continue (Vista).

11. In regedit, navigate to the location below. (see screenshot below)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

12. In the left pane under the Profilelist key, select and look at each S-1-5 key with the long number until you see the user account name and path (step 3) that you want to move in the value Data column of ProfileImagePath in the right pane. When the correct user name is found, right click on ProfileImagePath, and click on Modify. (see screenshot above)

13. Type in the full path of the location (ex: E:\User account to move) that you copied the user profile folder to in step 7, and click on OK. (see screenshot below)

14. Regedit will now look similiar to this with the new location now. Close regedit. (see screenshot below)

15. To Verify that the User Profile has been Moved Successfully
A) Log off or Switch User, then log in to the user account that you moved the user profile folder of.

B) Open the Start Menu and open the user profile folder from this location. (see screenshot below)

C) Right click on one of the user folders (ex: Desktop), click on Properties, and click on the Location tab. (see screenshot below)

D) You should see the new location (ex: E:\User account to move\Desktop) from step 8 as the now new default location. Click on OK. (see screenshot above)
16. To Delete the User Profile from the Old Location
NOTE: Once you have verified (step 15) that the moved user profile has been moved successfully, you can now safely delete the user profile folder from the old location (ex: C:\Users\User account to move) from step 4.
A) Log off of the user account that you moved if you are logged into it from step 15.

B) Log on to an administrator account that you did not move it's user folder for.

C) In Windows Explorer, navigate to the old C:\Users\(user-name) folder (ex: C:\Users\User account to move) that you had copied (step 4). Right click on it and click on Delete. (see screenshot below)

D) If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes (Windows 7) or Continue (Vista).

E) If prompted, click on Continue. (see screenshot below)

F) You can now empty the Recycle Bin to finish deleting the old user profile folder from the old location.
NOTE: You will need to approve emptying the Recycle Bin.
17. The existing user profile folder has now been completely moved to the new default location where Windows 7 or Vista will now run it from when logged on to it.

Method Two

To Restore the Existing User Profile's Default Location

1. Repeat OPTION ONE, but move the new default User Profile folder (ex: E:\User account to move) and registry entries back to the original C:\Users folder location (ex: C:\Users\User account to move).

OPTION TWO

For All New User Accounts Created

   Note

This will change where all newly created user accounts will have their user profile folder created at in a default location of your choice instead of the old default C:\Users location.

Thank you to Alain for pointing this out.

1. To Change the Default User Profile Location of New User Accounts
A) Open the Start Menu, then type regedit in the search box and press enter.
B) If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes (Windows 7) or Continue (Vista).

C) In regedit, navigate to the location below. (see screenshot below)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

D) In the right pane of ProfileList, right click on ProfilesDirectory and click on Modify. (see screenshot above)

E) Type in the full path (ex: E:\Users) of where you want new user accounts to be created at, and click on OK. (see screenshot below)

F) The registry will now look similar to this. (see screenshot below)

G) When you create a new user account, it's user profile folder will now be created at the location you specified in step 1E.
2. To Restore the Default User Profile Location of New User Accounts
A) Repeat step 1, but type %SystemDrive%\Users at step 1E instead.
NOTE: This step only changes the user profile folder location of any newly created user accounts back to this default location, and not any existing user accounts.

B) If you wish to change an already existing new account's user profile folder location, then you will need to do Method Two in OPTION ONE above to change it back to C:\Users.
3. Close regedit.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Customize Default User Profile in Audit Mode
• How to Change the Default Location of Windows 7 User Folders
• How to Restore the Default Location of Windows 7 User Folders
• How to Change the Windows 7 Default User Folder Icons
• How to Pin Your User Files Folder to the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Create Your Own Special User Folder
• How to Restore Windows 7 Default User Folder Icons
• How to Add or Remove your User Folder from the Windows 7 Navigation Pane
• How to Allow or Prevent Users to Move their User Folders to a New Location
• How to Add or Remove "User Folder" from Desktop Context Menu
• How to Create User Accounts on another Partition or Disk During Windows 7 Installation
• How to Free Up and Recover Hard Drive Space in Windows 7
• How to Change the User Folder Name of a User Profile in Windows 7

 

[ahmedilyas]

so after further investigation and doing this in a VM environment - IE does work but only if you run it from the new location.
if you launch it from the start menu or task bar - it fails (window appears then disappears almost immediately)

if I then delete the shortcut on the taskbar and create the shortcut from the new location and pin it to the taskbar... it still fails to launch from the taskbar.
if you right click on the shortcut on the taskbar and then press "Open a new tab" or "Start in private browsing" - it works!

what is going on here.... :-/

 

[ICIT2LOL]

So Shawn just so I have it right (am building for my partner soon and will use a small SSD to boot and a larger spinner for storage) - if the owner wants to save Music or Documents on the spinner then go with Option 2?

What I am concerned with is that I seem to remember doing something similar on my Ivy Bridge and when I wanted to play back some music the WMP could not or would not load what I wanted from the spinner so I left it and bought a larger SSD for the space.
Now with this build I wish I could buy a 500GB SSD and it would solve my problem but as I cannot and Lynne likes to store a LOT of music and photos I am going to have to set it to save libraries on the spinner. Now accessing those libraries easily is what Lynne will need to do and if it turns out like my own experience I will not be very popular if she can't.
I know it may be very easy for some to understand how to retrieve data - it looks complicated to me.
Any tips please.

 

[Brink]

Hey John,

Personally, I would recommend to use libraries instead to avoid issues that come with moving user folders.

• Create a new folder at any location you want.
• Move any files you want into the new folder.
• Include the new folder into a library of your choice.
• Set the new folder to be the default "save" to location for the library as well.
• Set any program to save to the library, and it actually gets saved to the new folder's location.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Looks the goods Shawn thanks again for the help.
John

 

[Brink]

Anytime John.

 

[Kaktussoft]

Shawn, nice tutorial....but... Another admin user copies the files to another drive. Copying files makes the other user the owner of the file and resets all permissions to default (so inheret).

 

[Brink]

Hey Ron,

Yeah, that and few other reasons is why I don't recommend to move a user profile. To many issues could pop-up from doing so.

 

[richyfunk]

Default Users don't work

Hi,
Hope you are having a good day.

I have followed all instructions and able to change the main administration account to D:\ which works perfectly, however I'm getting issues with Outlook 2013 (not sure if that's related).

When I create a new account, it creates the account and in regedit it reads on the profile list D:\Users\User account name and unable to use it. When I click on the icon on the start up page to enter this user it:
1. boots "welcome"
2. flash of screen
3. "logging off".

Could you suggest what I can do to rectify this issue? OS Windows 7.

Thank you for any time and consideration in this matter.

 

[Brink]

Hello Richy, and welcome to Seven Forums.

I'm assuming that you did Option Two in the tutorial for new user accounts?

Did you get any error messages when logging in to the new account?

If you are low on hard drive space, you could have folders on another drive with the files you want to save in them, then include the new folder in a library for easy access.

 

[Elmasryahmed]

I changed the directory a while ago, now I installed a fresh copy of win 7, when I link my saved user folder using option one, I got the same issue
1-log on screen,
2- welcome,
3- splash screen
4- log off
Any help please.

 

[Brink]

Hello Elmasryahmed, and welcome to Eight Forums.

Option One was for an existing account in your current Windows. The old directory was from a previous Windows, and would not work using this option.

You might see if you may be able to do a system restore at boot using a restore point (if available) dated before this happened.

If not, then you might see if you are able to boot to Safe Mode, and reverse this, or create a new account to use instead.

 

[Elmasryahmed]

Thanks Brink,
I already managed to log on to windows ( changed back the registry to the default path),
Now is it possible to link my user account to the old user folder?!!

 

[Brink]

I'm afraid not.

Personally, I would recommend to use OPTION TWO, then create a new account for you to use instead that will be at the new location.

 

[Elmasryahmed]

I'm afraid not.

I thought one of the reason of doing so is to keep your user folder if you lose your windows so it can be used with a new installation!!!
So if I use option 2 and then merge ( drag and drop) my old folders like music, pictures .....etc, to the new user folder would it work?!

 

[Brink]

You could copy over any your files you wanted from the old folders to the new ones, but you don't want to completely replace the new with the old.

 

[Rookie2]

Today I successfully did this again. My secondary partition was also E so did it almost exactly like Brink did. The only difference was I was going to move my profile folder to E:\Users and not to E:\
I wasn't sure if I had to create the Users folder in E first or if it would create it automatically. I thought it would create it automatically so I just logged back to my user to check. It didn't, and as a result, I was logged in to the so called temporary location.
Then I tried again, but this time I created the Users folder in E first and it worked as expected.
So I think the tutorial should be edited and a note or an extra step should be added pointing out that your new user directory must exist before you log back into your account because the system won't create it automatically. If you will move your profile folder to inside another folder then you have to create that folder first if it doesn't exist.
Otherwise, this tutorial still rocks. Thank you again.

 

[Brink]

Hello Rookie2,

You can copy your (user-name) into any folder or root directory you like. It doesn't have to be in an ex: "E:\Users" folder.

You just have to make sure you have the correct new path in the registry.

 

[aPolit]

Thank you Brink for your excellent tutorial, worked like a charm!

But now there seems to be one annoyance: every time I try to make a backup, I get a message that Windows Backup is skipping some files:

Backup encountered a problem while backing up file C:\Users\Oliver\Documents. Error: (The system cannot find the path specified. (0x80070003))
Backup encountered a problem while backing up file C:\Users\Oliver\Music. Error: (The system cannot find the path specified. (0x80070003))
Backup encountered a problem while backing up file C:\Users\Oliver\Pictures. Error: (The system cannot find the path specified. (0x80070003))
Backup encountered a problem while backing up file C:\Users\Oliver\AppData\Local. Error: (The system cannot find the path specified. (0x80070003))
Backup encountered a problem while backing up file C:\Users\Oliver\AppData\LocalLow. Error: (The system cannot find the path specified. (0x80070003))
Backup encountered a problem while backing up file C:\Users\Oliver\Contacts. Error: (The system cannot find the path specified. (0x80070003))
Backup encountered a problem while backing up file C:\Users\Oliver\Desktop. Error: (The system cannot find the path specified. (0x80070003))
Backup encountered a problem while backing up file C:\Users\Oliver\Downloads. Error: (The system cannot find the path specified. (0x80070003))
Backup encountered a problem while backing up file C:\Users\Oliver\Favorites. Error: (The system cannot find the path specified. (0x80070003))
Backup encountered a problem while backing up file C:\Users\Oliver\Links. Error: (The system cannot find the path specified. (0x80070003))
Backup encountered a problem while backing up file C:\Users\Oliver\Saved Games. Error: (The system cannot find the path specified. (0x80070003))
Backup encountered a problem while backing up file C:\Users\Oliver\Searches. Error: (The system cannot find the path specified. (0x80070003))

The path C:\Users\Oliver\ doesn't exist anymore. It's now D:\Users\Oliver\ ... So, any suggestions?

 

[Brink]

Hello aPolit, and welcome to Seven Forums.

No worries. That's just a general error letting you know that Windows Backup can no longer find those folders that you specified to back up. This is because you moved them of course.

You can use the tutorial below reset Windows Backup back to default. Afterwards, just set up Windows Backup again, but be sure to include the folders at the new location instead.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/632-backup-user-system-files-reset-default-configuration.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/615-backup-user-system-files.html

 

[aPolit]

Hello aPolit, and welcome to Seven Forums.
No worries. That's just a general error letting you know that Windows Backup can no longer find those folders that you specified to back up. This is because you moved them of course.

You can use the tutorial below reset Windows Backup back to default. Afterwards, just set up Windows Backup again, but be sure to include the folders at the new location instead.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/632-backup-user-system-files-reset-default-configuration.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/615-backup-user-system-files.html

Thanks! But it seems the problem persists. Also, if I launch regedit and do a search "C:\Users\Oliver", I get several hits. Should I just replace every "C:\Users\Oliver" string with "D:\Users\Oliver" in registry, or will something explode?