WIndows 10 How can I change the user name associated with my local Windows account?

[JohnJSal]

I just installed Windows 10 and I turned off the option to sign in with a Microsoft account, so I created a local account. But is there a way to change the name of the account, or the way the "User" is listed in the file explorer?

On Windows 7 it was just my first name, "John". Now it is "johnj", which I don't like. That's not even the name I chose as my local account username, so I think it just took it from the first part of my email address.

Can I change this?

Thanks!

 

[voyagerfan99]

You will need to make a new account to make it look the way to want.

 

[JohnJSal]

You will need to make a new account to make it look the way to want.

But even when I switched from my Microsoft account to a local account, it didn't use the name I entered for the local account. The "User" folder is using a piece of my email address for some reason.

Is that going to change if I make a new account? What kind of new account do I make? Another local one?

 

[johnb35]

It will be much simpler if you just create a new local account and transfer data from one to the other. The original user account folder name won't change. Create the new account, make it an administrator account, transfer data out of that user folder and then delete the old account. Please note that you'll have to take ownership of that folder.

I use this process to take ownership and it works really well.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3841-add-take-ownership-context-menu-windows-10-a.html

If you need help, let me know.

 

[JohnJSal]

It will be much simpler if you just create a new local account and transfer data from one to the other. The original user account folder name won't change. Create the new account, make it an administrator account, transfer data out of that user folder and then delete the old account. Please note that you'll have to take ownership of that folder.

I use this process to take ownership and it works really well.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3841-add-take-ownership-context-menu-windows-10-a.html

If you need help, let me know.

It's a fresh install, so I probably don't need to worry about transferring data.

But if I create a new local account, what exactly happens? Will it add a new folder under User with the new name?

Will the original folder with the weird name still be the "main" one? Can I delete it?

Basically, I just want one user on the system, and I want the name to be John.

 

[voyagerfan99]

But if I create a new local account, what exactly happens? Will it add a new folder under User with the new name?

It will make a new folder under C:\users\whateveryounameit

Will the original folder with the weird name still be the "main" one? Can I delete it?

Once you make the new profile and sign in you can go in advanced system settings and delete the other profile.

 

[JohnJSal]

Thank you so much! I got it how I wanted!

I think part of my problem was that originally I didn't actually create a new, separate local account. Instead, I somehow just converted my Microsoft account to a local account, so that's why it was still using a part of my email address as the User name!