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

 

[VideoEditor]

step 15 fails trying to delete old profile

Having completed all steps up to 14 and everything seems okay.
Logged off from user account that was moved.
Logged on to administrator account created temporarily and when trying to delete the old user profile on C drive eventually get this message:
Folders In Use. The action can't be completed because the folder or a file in it is open in another program. Close the folder or file and try again.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[Brink]

Hello VideoEditor, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Do you have that folder or any subfolder opened in another window? Double check your taskbar for any opened windows that may be for it just to see.

If not, then you might check to see if you have any subfolders in the old user profile folder that are set to be shared, or id a program may have a save to folder in there.

If all else fails, you could try restarting the computer to close anything that may be using it, log on to the new account, and try deleting the old one again.

Hope this helps for now,
Shawn

 

[voiplo]

Edit: Nevermind, I misunderstood the guide. So, all went accordingly, but there was a "Windows Media" file that could not be deleted because it was "open".

Now that I've moved it all over, my user profile to be moved is still there, but the only thing inside is a 2.41MB AppData folder. Is this supposed to be there? It contains a Microsoft, PMB Files and Razer folder inside.

 

[Brink]

Hello Alkajak,

It sounds like the "Windows Media" file may have still been set to be shared or used as a library in Media Center or Windows Media Player before moved, and is why it showed as opened.

Not sure about the AppData folder, but you may have something that's refusing to use the new location and still writing to the default location. Razer sounds like a mobile phone?

 

[voiplo]

I turned off the sharing like the guide said.

Razer is my gaming mouse and keyboard driver.

 

[Brink]

That's one of the possible issues with moving an user profile of an existing account.

I'd recommend to use OPTION TWO instead to set all new accounts to be created where you like, create yourself a new administrator account, log on to it, copy any shortcuts and files you want from the old account over, and see how it works for a day. If no issues, then you could delete the old account while logged in the new one if you like.

 

[voiplo]

The guide to restoring the user profile should work if I've already emptied my recycling bin with my deleted user profile, right?

 

[Brink]

No. You would want to restore the user profile first. If you delete it first, then it's gone.

 

[SLaW]

IE9 & User Profile - Change Default Location

Brink,

I followed your tutorial and ran into an issue with deleting my original user folder. I rebooted in safe mode and was able to delete the original user folder. I have also logged into my administrator account and removed the "Temporary" user.

I have also completed the registry edit so it points to my D:\Steve. I confirmed by following Step #15.

Now, I am experiencing an issue with Internet Explorer 9. When I start IE9, it opens with just the address bar and the rest of the screen is blank. I click on the "Tools" icon (the wheel) and everything is greyed out except for "File" and "Safety". If I leave it set for about one minute, it will finally load my home page and it works fine at that point / regular speed.

BTW, initially when my original user folder was not deleting, I thought it was because I already had loaded some of my initial install programs (MSE, Spybot, Spyware Blaster, AntiMalware Bytes, Firefox). So I removed all of them except for MSE. It still did not allow me to remove the original user folder. That's when I tried the "Safe Boot" option.

What am I missing?????

 

[Brink]

Hello SLaW, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You might try doing OPTION TWO to set new accounts to be created on your D: drive, then create a new administrator account for yourself to use. Next, log on to it and see how it runs in it. If all ok, then you could use the new account instead, and just copy over any shortcuts or files you want from the old account.

Moving existing user profiles sometimes have issues.

 

[SLaW]

IE9 & User Profile - Change Default Location

Brink,

Thanks so much for that!!!

I followed method 2, created a dummy account and it was working as expected. I re-created the account name I wanted, confirmed that things were still working correctly, and deleted the dummy account

Did I already mention ???

Thanks again!

 

[Brink]

Perfect. You're most welcome Steven.

 

[Rookie2]

HI.
After step 15) A) I got a file called desktop.ini on my desktopand it automatically opened when I logged in.
Is this normal? And what should I do?
Thanks.

 

[Brink]

Hello Rookie2,

Is the file actually opening, or just a faded icon on your desktop?

If it's just an icon, then you could do step 5 in OPTION ONE of the tutorial below to set hidden files to not show anymore to stop it.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/394-hidden-files-folders-show-hide.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Rookie2]

Yes, the file opens each time I log in, and it's not a faded icon.
I'll check out what you said, thanks!

 

[Brink]

If the file is opening in say notepad each time you log in, then double check your startup programs in all of the different locations in the tutorial below to see if it is listed to run at startup/log in. If so, disable or delete the entry to stop it.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1401-startup-programs-change.html

 

[Rookie2]

I've successfully deleted the entry from the startup folder (thanks for your tip . Now it no longer opens automatically when I log in, but the file is still on the desktop (not faded). What should I do? Can I delete it?

 

[Brink]

Great news. Yep, it's safe to delete if you like.

 

[Rookie2]

I deleted it, logged off, then logged in and everything seemed to be ok. Thanks a lot for your help. I didn't like that strange useless icon on my desktop at all.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome.

It wouldn't hurt to do a full scan of your system with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free just to help make sure that you system is clean though.