# Solved: Renamed user account, but profile and paths still have old name



## Saussure (Feb 28, 2005)

i'm sending this out from my iphone, so please excuse the format and lack of capital letters ;-)
i got a new hp pavilion laptop; os is windows 7 home premium 64-bit. when i booted it up the first time, there was already an administrator account on it, bearing the name of the company who had sent me the laptop. i renamed the user account and the computer to my name; but the paths connected to the user profile and the user profile itself (under "users" on the c drive) still have the old name. i did some reading and it seems that one has to rename the account back to the old name, then create a new administrator account with the name one wants and transfer the profile from the old account to the new one, then delete the old account if everything is working well; however, i believe that these instructions are rather for windows xp than for windows 7, and i have no idea how to copy a profile. i am not a computer geek and cannot fiddle around with the registry, and i'm new to windows 7. so: how can i rename the profile paths and my profile folder to MY name - or is it impossible to change, and will i just have to live with it? i also hope that if the situation cannot be changed, then this is simply a cosmetic 'bug' and won't cause any problems.

thanks in advance for your time and patience


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## lunarlander (Sep 22, 2007)

The instructions you read applies to Win 7 as well. Changing the login name of an account will not change the 'profile' directory names. ( the folder \Users\<account name> )

Just create a new account, and if you have stuff saved in the old account, copy over the Documents, Pictures, Music ... folders to the new account. Then after making sure everything is copied over, you can delete the old account.


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## Saussure (Feb 28, 2005)

hi lunarlander,

thank you very much for your response; i was confused by this document on how to replace a corrupted user profile (well, mine is not corrupted, but i need to replace it to fix the path name issue) in windows 7, and it says that one needs THREE admin accounts to replace a profile/user account:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Fix-a-corrupted-user-profile

i guess this is not necessary?
and i'll have to rename my current account back to the previous name before creating a new admin account with my own name?
and finally: how do i transfer my documents, pictures etc. from one profile to another? is a usb flash drive required? do i also need to copy/transfer hidden folders like the appdata folder?

again, thanks for your time


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## lunarlander (Sep 22, 2007)

You can copy and paste from any account to another when you are admin. No need to use a flash drive.


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## Saussure (Feb 28, 2005)

i don't understand how i need to copy the documents, pictures etc. do i have to go to the c drive, windows and then to the "users" folder? i don't know if this is windows 7-specific, but my profile folder (with the unwanted name instead of my name) has a lock icon, but i can access it and view the documents, desktop, picture etc. folders.

i haven't created a new account as yet or anything since i'm not sure i've understood everything properly. what i've understood is the following:

1) rename my current account to its previous (unwanted) name
2) create a new admin account bearing my name and log into it
3) copy only documents, music etc. (question: do hidden folders like the appdata folder have to be copied along?) from the old account to the new one
4) delete old account

i hope third-party software like microsoft office 2010 or itunes or thunderbird won't be affected by changing user accounts. if i'm going to experience any issues with programs due to this profile directory path mess and account replacing, then i guess i'll just have to let things be.


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## lunarlander (Sep 22, 2007)

I think the lock icon just means that it is private, and you have to have admin rights to access them, otherwise it is locked out from other users.

Appdata is the tricky one, I would suggest you copy that folder too. Because, Thunderbird and iTunes may store things under that folder. You would have to investigate, if you find folders belonging to either application under AppData, then you should copy them over. I don't use either app so I don't know for sure. 

As a precaution, after copying over AppData, leave the old account alone, and try out all your applications. If they work fine, only then remove the old account.


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## Saussure (Feb 28, 2005)

Thank you very much for the helpful information :-D I'll try to get this done over the weekend.


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## Saussure (Feb 28, 2005)

hi lunarlander,

i renamed my account back to the previous name and created a new admin account under my name and copied over the contents of my firefox and thunderbird folders. i had to re-create the basic settings (shortcuts, mouse settings), but that was all (so far)  i'll keep both accounts running for a few weeks and delete the old one later.
thanks for your help :-D


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## lunarlander (Sep 22, 2007)

You're welcome


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