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I am trying to rename a user home directory on Windows 8 as for some reason it has taken part of the email address rather than the proper name for the home folder name.
There is an excellent tutorial on how to do this elsewhere on the site, but one step involves opening Computer Manager and selecting Local Users and Groups from the System Tools menu. I don't have this entry.
What do I do?
Richard
Posted 2013-05-23T10:33:20.200
Reputation: 13
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I believe this might be the tutorial you mentioned, which I'm the author of :)
I have looked into this problem and have found no way to enable this Control Panel snap-in, or use it from a remote computer to make the changes on the target system. To my knowledge, there is simply no way.
However, I've recently made an addition to the post mentioned above on how to attempt to make the change through editing the registry. However, I have only tried this in a virtual machine which I didn't use much, so I don't know how safe the process is.
Der Hochstapler
Posted 2013-05-23T10:33:20.200
Reputation: 77 228
Unfortunately I failed at the first hurdle. When trying to rename the profile folder I got "Access is denied". I have a feeling that even my Administrator user is not a full administrator. – Richard – 2013-05-23T11:00:33.440
@Richard: Reboot and only log in with the local administrative account. If the problem persists, retry the same in safe mode. I had the same issue when I tried it, but it eventually worked. – Der Hochstapler – 2013-05-23T11:02:16.040
OK, I can't believe I am going to have to ask this, but how do you boot Windows 8 into safe mode when it hasn't detected a fault? – Richard – 2013-05-23T11:19:32.097
@Richard: Please see http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/windows-startup-settings-including-safe-mode However, after reviewing that process, I'm fairly certain it worked for me without entering Safe Mode. I'm not quite sure why it would deny access to the user profile folder when logging in with an unrelated local account.
– Der Hochstapler – 2013-05-23T12:09:16.383thanks for your help. I managed to boot into safe mode and I have now been able to rename the directory. Just trawling through the registry now. I will report back on my success or otherwise just to give closure :D – Richard – 2013-05-23T12:14:53.580
Got stuck in the alternate world of safe mode for a while but a quick command prompt> msconfig soon sorted that. All seems to be working fine now. Thanks again for your help. – Richard – 2013-05-23T12:37:05.907
@Richard: Great to hear that it worked out. – Der Hochstapler – 2013-05-23T13:43:11.700
"Local Users and Groups" is not available in the home version (core edition), you need the Pro version to get this feature. – magicandre1981 – 2013-05-23T14:32:53.240