Windows 10: Hazards changing the original 1st administrator account?

I picked up my 1st new laptop in approximately a decade in order to join the Windows 10 world from the Windows 7 world.

One of the first thing that the setup process did was set up an account. Being old school, I elected not to make it an online Microsoft account. I used my usual user name (say) cba. Later in the process, I realized that it was an administrator account. I normally use a non-administrator account, reserving an administrator account only for maintenance/installation/upgrades. I wanted to keep cba as my usual (non-administrator) account, so I renamed the user name for the one and only (original 1st administrator) account to cbaa. [1]

What bad thing could possibly happen, right? Windows has had decades to become better. Nothing nonsensical could possibly come about from renaming a solitary and original administrator account, right?

Wrong.

My instincts said to do basic sanity checking, like shutting down, booting up, and seeing if I could log in and navigate normally. Well, I logged in alright, but could only see a black desktop, with a tiny box on the lower left corner with the text "AgStdAlo". Web searching indicates that this is the Acer Office Manager Agent (not that it's necessarily the culprit). There was seemingly no response to any user input.

After some web searching, I found that I could invoke the Task Manager using Shift-Ctrl-Esc. Nothing else. Another shut down and restart later, same thing. I used the Task Manager to launch Windows Explorer -- no luck. Explorer didn't even show up as a process in the task manager. Another shut down and bootup later, I relaunched Windows Explorer with administrator privileges. Finally, I get the familier Windows Explorer.

I immediately changed the user name back to cba, shut down, and booted up again. All the above problems went away (seemingly, so far).

I would like to retain cba for my usual non-administrator account. Is it irrevocably assigned to the administrator account forever? Such a design feature would be...quite...disappointing.

Currently, I don't dare try something fancier, but would it be wise to create another administrator account, then change cba to a non-administrator?

FOOTNOTE

[1] I can't recall the exact link, but one of the many returns for a web search

user2153235

Posted 2020-01-15T03:32:37.617

Reputation: 203

Answers

You should be able to create a new admin account, then delete this cba account.

You'll want to make sure to delete the entire user profile directory for the old account.

Then create a new account with the username you want.

music2myear

Posted 2020-01-15T03:32:37.617

Reputation: 34 957

Thanks, music2myear. Since my brief experience suggests that The One Original Account seems underpin the DNA of the system, are you able to point to a web page describes your procedure (perhaps a Microsoft page)? If note, I will cross my finger, hold my breath, and -- maybe -- try it. Most likely try it. Because it would be real downer to get stuck with nonsensical account names because of such a limitation in the OS design. – user2153235 – 2020-01-15T04:23:57.000

Your test didn't actually check anything relevant to your problem. You did mess things up by renaming a folder the system was expecting to find. By doing things the right way, creating a new account, deleting the old one, and recreating it, you will be doing things the way Windows has been designed to handle. – music2myear – 2020-01-15T04:45:35.263

Windows has been able to handle changing accounts for a long time. Since XP days really. There is no "underpinning" and no tangled up DNA involved here. You just change things in the way it's designed to work, and you'll have no problems. – music2myear – 2020-01-15T04:53:35.860

I didn't rename the folder. I renamed the user name associate with the account. I will clarify this in the posted question. I renamed the username using the Windows method for doing so. If it causes problems under the hood for this to be done, then it seems to me to be an OS design problem. – user2153235 – 2020-01-15T13:10:12.377

I reflected on what was done. If by "test" you mean shutting down, restarting, and logging in, it seems quite relevant to the problem. In fact, it is the problem. Upon login, Windows Explorer refuses to run with the renamed account name, but everything is fine if the renaming is reversed. I'm wondering if I properly understand you comment? – user2153235 – 2020-01-16T01:01:11.127

The 3 steps outlined in my answer are the correct process. There is not much to misunderstand. This is NOTHING like renaming your account, and you didn't specify HOW you renamed that account. – music2myear – 2020-01-16T03:20:37.450

Ah, I see. I don't recall which link I followed for the account renaming, but it wasn't as crude as renaming the folder. Windows has user account management panels, including explicit menu choices for renaming accounts. I don't know what it all does when these are selected, but this experience has branded fear of those features into me. Like a deer that survives eating nearly fatally poisonous fruit, I will never try it again. It really shatters the confidence in Windows that I've been developing over the years. Though rarely manage accounts. Just create & use a few. – user2153235 – 2020-01-16T03:39:28.220

would it be wise to create another administrator account, then change cba to a non-administrator? This seems to be the simplest solution. I am not aware of any unusual privilege given to a first account.

jdow

Posted 2020-01-15T03:32:37.617

Reputation: 149

Thanks, jdow. I'll mark responses as answers once I've tried it. I'm going very slow on this (and sorting out other issues at the same time). – user2153235 – 2020-01-15T13:14:13.087