To rename (or move) the User Profile folder, you may use the following method. This method has been adopted from
KB314843, but this page explains in detail how to rename an User account home directory.
Though you can move or rename the user profile folder, there may be some side-effects after using this method. This is because of the reason that there may be some absolute path (to the old user profile folder) references in the registry, made by third-party software. Therefore, there may be a loss of functionality in some third-party software which stores the file locations as absolute paths, in the registry.
Before modifying the registry, you need to take a full backup, in case you want to Undo the changes or to recover from disasters caused by incorrect registry modifications if any. You may use
ERUNT for a full registry backup. Use Registry Editor at your own risk
Rename the User Profile folder using Windows Explorer
- Logon to an admin account that is not the account being renamed.
- Open the Documents and Settings folder, by typing this in Start, Run dialog:
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings
- The list of folders will be displayed. Select the corresponding folder of the user account that you want to rename.
Example
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\OldUsername
becomes
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\NewUsername
Next step is to notify the registry that the folder has been renamed (or the Profile Path has been changed)
Changing the ProfileImagePath value in the registry
ProfileList key, SIDs and the ProfileImagePath value
The ProfileList registry key contains some sub-keys, which are nothing but the list of User Account Security Identifiers (SID). Each of the SID represents an Account. The key is located here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ ProfileList
Identify the SID for your User account, and change the Profile path
- To know the SID for your user account, you may use the script sidlist.vbs
- Download the script and run it. (The User Account names and SIDs will be listed in a log file, and opened automatically.)
- Note down the SID for your account.
- Then, in the Registry Editor, select the correct SID that belongs to your user account.
- In the right-pane, double-click the ProfileImagePath value and set the correct path and folder name. ( The ProfileImagePath stores the full path of the User account home folder. )
Example
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\OldUsername
becomes the following:
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\NewUsername
You're done now. Close Registry Editor, and restart Windows. See if you're able to logon to that user profile successfully. Additionally, to verify if the path has been changed successfully, type
SET in the Command Prompt. If you find any abnormal behavior while running an application (in case), you may Undo the above procedure. Then you may use the
Copy To Profile method instead to accomplish your task.
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