Failed User Folder Name change and Failed System Restore – how I fixed it

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How annoying is it that MS automatically assigns your User Folder name as the first 5 letters of your Account (or email) name?  To try to take control of my User Folder name (c:>Users>[Folder Name])   I dutifully Created a Restore Point then followed MS’s instructions to change my User Folder name (not my Account name).  Kapow, Windows 11 pooched. Could not get to System Restore. Booted into Safe Mode, Advanced Options etc, ended up in a Do-Loop (a fun computer amusement park ride which those of you like me who grew up with Fortran would recognize).  BIOS (Dell) did not have Factory Reset as an option! I tried all the other usual options to no avail. Eventually I was able to boot into a busted version of Windows (taskbar missing so no way to start System Restore.) What finally worked?  Task Manager->File->Run New Task->restrui.exe

Whew

 

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Renaming a user folder without causing profile problems requires a corresponding change in the correct place in the registry:

Change Name of User Profile Folder in Windows 11

[ElevenForum Tutorial]

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I am well aware. It is a two step process. I followed MS instructions to the letter on a brand new Dell Intel 12th gen desktop (not that the processor should make a difference but an indication of the youth of my machine.)

Here’s the link.  To repeat, I followed to the letter. I’m pretty sure I know what I’m doing. These instructions pooched my machine, big time.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-to-change-username-on-pc-located-in-cusers-in/ed70f119-0dd3-422f-a3f9-6dcff3a2bcad

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That covers steps 1 to 9 of the tutorial, but not steps 10 to 15.

(It also doesn’t recommend sign in as a different admin first.)

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@b when I upgraded from 10 to 11 it decided that my c:Users username was “user” instead of what it was “kris” in 10. I would like to change it per your method but there exists a “kris” in Users with only a single entry put there by turbotax which I don’t believe it uses. registry search for C:/Users/kris yields nothing, so my thought (I have imaged SSD) is to simply delete that “kris” folder in Users and then do step 6. Thoughts?

Interestingly that kris line (1000) has in that profile “C:/Users/User ”

(NOTE backward slash is typed here as forward slash to pass through askwoody editor.)

Maybe best to do nothing…

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Yeah, great advice except the computer gets pooched at Step 5+ 3 =8 following MS Method 2, meaning you cannot get to Step 10, or Step 9 for that matter. Huge hassle to fix and like an innocent dope I thought I did something wrong so I tried a second time, very very carefully following MS instructions, including Rebooting when he says reboot, and Restarting when he says restart. As John Madden would have said, BOOM, POW, pooched again.  (I could do this no problem with my Windows 11 computer following similar steps.)

Just incredible that MS cannot program in the simple option to choose your own User Folder name when first setting up Windows. WHY NOT?  Remind me what version of Windows we are on.  Is this a really tough programming challenge – to let you edit ProgramImagePath without breaking Windows

Sheesh

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Correction “…I could do this no problem with my Windows 10 computer…”

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I mentioned this before but no harm saying it again. A workaround I’ve often used is to create a local account first and then to convert it to a Microsoft account later in Settings.

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Hi Steevie. Thanks. However, I think your work-around only works when you are first setting up your computer?  I didn’t do so first time, so now I’m fully up and running with the annoying MS Didn’t-Ask-Me-What-I-Wanted Involuntarily-Assigned User Folder name.

And so, I tried to change to a name I wanted, not what MS wanted. Boom, kapow, computer pooched! And yes, of course I created a Restore Point first. And yes I know how to get to the right path name in the Registry. Ha. (I did try the local account method after the full setup. It just gave me another User Name which I guess I could live with but why should I?)

Thanks again for responding. Seriously.

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Confirming Steeviebops advice was correct. The only way I could change my User name (not having done so at the very get-go) was to create an entirely new local account with the User name I wanted and then do all the steps everyone knows to pull over everything from the up and running account, then change the User account to an MS account, have a quick sip of single malt, and then finish the job. Ridiculous waste of time.

Thanks Steeviebops sincerely

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It would only work for a new user account but it wouldn’t matter if it was a new account when Windows was first installed, or a new user account created later.

I’ve never tried to change the name of the user profile folder after the account was created. I always considered that to be a no-no because any amount of items could be tied to the original name.

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Your point about the interconnections would explain why I broke my computer twice. Yet at the risk of whining about the obvious, why oh why does changing the folder name “correctly” in the Registry mess up Windows?  I can change the name of all other folders (except the five locked ones.)

I used to call the house where I live “the house with green shutters”. My address is 150 Post Lane.

This year I started calling my house “the cottage with a white picket fence”.  You know where this is going. My address is still 150 Post Lane!! My friends don’t get lost coming over. Mirabile dictu.

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