For those who do not have Windows 8 Professional, there is a way to rename the old account using command line:
Open command prompt with Right Click → Run as Admin. In command prompt window, type
net user
and verify the old account name, ie userA. To verify that the old account is an administrator, type:
net localgroup administrators
verify old account name is under C:\Users\userA. To rename the old user account:
wmic useraccount where "name='userA'" rename olduserA
Then if successful, verify the name has changed, type
net user
Verify that C:\Users\olduserA shows up now. Then go to Control Panel → User Accounts → and rename the old user account display name
Then you can copy this renamed account to a newly created account if needed, skipping NTUSER.DAT*
& NTUSER.ini
files.
This is the method I used for a corrupt user account profile. First logged in as Administrator on win8 home, then renamed the old user account, changed the display name of old user account, created new user account with admin privs, created C:\Users\newacct and then copied most files/folders from old account C:\Users\oldacct to C:\Users\newacct. Changed the permissions on C:\Users\newacct to give full access to the newacct, removed Everyone. Then rebooted and then logged in as new account.
Voila! User profile corruption fixed!
1I would assume that simply trying rename the folder would break things. – ChrisF – 2012-10-29T09:06:24.207
As a workaround, you can use the
%userprofile%
environment variable as a shortcut to your user folder. Socd %userprofile%
is equivalent tocd C:\Users\dzinx_000
. – Indrek – 2012-10-29T09:07:59.7101@ChrisF yeah, that's what I'm suspecting, that's why I'm asking :) – DzinX – 2012-10-29T09:08:28.337
Can you log in as another user and rename the original user? – ChrisF – 2012-10-29T09:11:44.370
@ChrisF I don't know, I'm afraid to try :) – DzinX – 2012-10-29T09:12:29.173
1
I just found out that while it's difficult to change an already existing username, it's easier to choose one when logging in with a Microsoft Account for the first time -- see my answer
– DzinX – 2012-10-30T09:04:55.5971
Also check out this link & MSKB.
– avirk – 2012-11-03T14:13:04.440I found something when digging the settings the other day. I'll see again and let you know. I actually changed my username. Windows put it to Pratyush. I made it to Pratyush Nalam. Although in my case, no annoying _000 was there – pratnala – 2012-11-04T06:16:49.377
@ChrisF: Yes it does, you'll be logged into a temporary profile afterwards. – Der Hochstapler – 2012-11-04T14:46:05.897