Consequence of changing Microsoft user name?

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When I bought my computer, the store installed the admin user under the name "Joe R. Blogg Christian", initial followed by dot and surname.

I always thought it wasn't good, but I didn't have any problems until now, since I now have a program that will not install under the user name in that format.

My question is: if I rename the user name to one without spaces etc, is it possible that some programs installed previously will stop working? Will this lead to a consistent renaming of all folders under the user name?

I'm using Windows 7 Professional.

Brian Turner

Posted 2013-08-20T23:55:26.047

Reputation: 11

Answers

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You can change the username, but documents and anything placed in %APPDATA% will still be under the same directory in C:/Users.

For instance, if my username is john.doe, my documents and related user profile files are stored in C:/Users/John.Doe/. I can change the name of my profile, but the files will still be in the same folder.

This is worth noting because your software more than likely is not liking the directory name of your profile, not the name of your profile itself.

The best thing to do would be to create a new user with the name you prefer to have, then migrate your documents and settings using Microsoft's tool, Easy Transfer.

Moses

Posted 2013-08-20T23:55:26.047

Reputation: 10 813

I would like to add that, on Vista, I did just that (changed the directory name itself). However, the process is messy, involved dual-booting wit XP and although afterwards everything ran OK, Vista has still a knack for wanting to return to the previous name, this being why I'm commenting this rather than giving a straight answer. – Doktoro Reichard – 2013-08-21T03:23:33.370

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[Microsoft Technet] (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/0b46fcec-fa88-413b-b94e-65c6adc432d7/easy-transfer-same-computer-same-hard-drive) has a procedure for transferring in the same PC, answering my previous comment.

– Doktoro Reichard – 2013-08-21T03:26:08.363

It should also be noted that for any Windows install I ever do, I never put spaces in usernames. Poorly written software sometimes fails to properly reference directories names, which is likely what is causing this issue with your software. I would create a new profile with a name without spaces. – Moses – 2013-08-21T03:54:20.283

A basic question, is "profile" equal to "user name"? – Brian Turner – 2013-08-21T08:36:43.040

So add a new account but not possible to use two accounts simultaneously. My choice thus a) Keep existing name adding a new user account for one programme which requires switching users to access data or b)new user account and Easy Transfer, and then delete original account with spaces (hard disk space shortage). – Brian Turner – 2013-08-21T09:03:39.947

Either one would work, so you have to weigh which one is worth it for you, you won't have a hard disk space loss if you delete the old account. – Moses – 2013-08-21T23:02:17.807

Asked: 2013-08-20T23:55:26.047

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Active: 2013-08-21T22:00:15.187