Windows 8 How to change owners

Surfer Joe · May 18, 2014

I have a laptop that I set up as normal when I installed win 8, with my account as the only one. It has some personal files and data that I don't mind losing but I don't want to leave them on the laptop.
I want to give it to my daughter and put her on as the main computer user/administrator and then wipe out my own account and data to save space and tidy it up.
I do not want to reinstall win or the software.
Can I do this by simply creating a new admin account for her and then once it's up and running delete my own admin account from the computer?
Will deleting an account automatically delete any personal data associated with that account, or will I have to manually remove main accounts from mail or bookmarks from Internet explorer, for example?
Thanks for any advice.

Fixer1234 · May 18, 2014

You need to decide how "deleted" you want the information to be. Files that are stored somewhere other than the default user file areas, like My Documents and Appdata, will probably not be affected by deleting the user and would need to be manually removed. My understanding is that files in the default user areas are not actually purged, the directory pointers just disappear when the user is removed. A good undelete program would recover them. If it is sensitive information that you don't want accidentally recovered, it would be a good idea to wipe the files while they are still accessible, before the user is deleted.

Saltgrass · May 18, 2014

You will need to create the other Admin Account before you remove yours. From what I remember, when you remove a User, you are given an option to remove all files associated with that user, which should remove your stuff. I would still check it from the other Admin Account to make sure.

Of course removing your stuff prior to removing your account could not hurt.

Fixer1234 · May 18, 2014

You need to decide how "deleted" you want the information to be. Files that are stored somewhere other than the default user file areas, like My Documents and Appdata, will probably not be affected by deleting the user and would need to be manually removed. My understanding is that files in the default user areas are not actually purged, the directory pointers just disappear when the user is removed. A good undelete program would recover them. If it is sensitive information that you don't want accidentally recovered, it would be a good idea to wipe the files while they are still accessible, before the user is deleted.

Surfer Joe · May 19, 2014

Thanks, everyone. The stuff is not sensitive, but I just want to clean up the computer and remove personal settings and accounts before giving it to my daughter.

ussnorway · May 22, 2014

1. Create the new account for little miss and give her admin rights and make it the default boot.

2. I would just disable your account but not remove it (for legal reasons) because the laptop could develop issues at a later date and having the old account will make life simpler when talking to the complete mess that Microsoft calls customer service.

Fixer1234 · May 22, 2014

Good thinking!

On the other hand, what is the likelihood of ever having problems with Microsoft?...Oh, yeah. Nevermind.

Surfer Joe · May 22, 2014

ussnorway said:
1. Create the new account for little miss and give her admin rights and make it the default boot.

2. I would just disable your account but not remove it (for legal reasons) because the laptop could develop issues at a later date and having the old account will make life simpler when talking to the complete mess that Microsoft calls customer service.

Thanks.
How do you make it the default boot?
I've only ever set up computers for myself, with no other user accounts, so I'm not familiar with it.
I'm not worried about the main account. I never deal with ms tech support anyway.
These forums are the best place to get useful help.

One question- once I have her account set up, can I safely just delete my entire user directory in windows explorer?
Or will deleting my account do the same thing?

Windows 8 How to change owners

Surfer Joe

New Member

Fixer1234

Saltgrass

Excellent Member

Fixer1234

Senior Member

Surfer Joe

New Member

ussnorway

Windows Forum Team

Fixer1234

Senior Member

Surfer Joe

New Member

Similar threads