Windows Vista How to change user name

[CAG43]

When I go to Control Panel and click on User Accounts there is a user named CAG, but when I go to drive C and click on Users CAG does not appear. However there is an account named Owner that appears to contain all of CAG's sub-accounts. Therefore, I tried to rename the Owner account to CAG but could not access the name field. What should I do to change the name?

CAG

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Hi CAG and welcome to the forum:

Your post in in the Windows Vista forum; is this the software running you are asking about?? If so, what Service Pack do you have installed on the Vista?

User Accounts do not contain "sub-accounts", rather they contain objects, usually you are looking for folders (or folder objects) listed in Windows Explorer underneath a User Account, name of Owner or CAG or anything else.

Is this a new computer you just bought and started using, or it a computer you have owned for sometime?

Usually folks have a problem like this if they purchased or were given a new computer, and are trying to change the name of the Owner or Adminstrator account that comes up on the Windows login screen (the one with the little picture and the box asking for your password).

You need to determine if CAG is an Administrator account or a "Limited" account. You can do this through Control Panel-->User Accounts-->Manage Another Account. This will show you all the created accounts in the Windows running on your computer since it was new or last rebuilt.

If CAG is on that screen and listed as type "Administrator"; you should be able to login as CAG and change it yourself.

This could be a problem of a scrambled Windows profile; it's kinda hard since I don't have your computer right in front of me. There is a fix for this, but you should first backup all personal data to external media using whatever User profile you've been using to logon to Windows on that computer. This would include such items as Documents, Photos, Music, Videos, E-mails, etc.

The usual process is to logon to your computer using whichever User Profile you use with that computer on a daily basis. This could be Owner, CAG, or perhaps Administrator. You can then create another User Account (say TEST), and then copy the User Profile from the account you logged on with over to the newly created User Account TEST. Proceed to logoff Windows and re-login using the new User Account TEST. I recommend you create a password for this TEST account. It can be something simple like "12345" or whatever you normally like to use. WRITE THAT PASSWORD DOWN!! Once that's accomplished you can go back to Control Panel-->User Accounts-->Manage Another Account, and access the new TEST account. You should now be logged on as Administrator User TEST, and you can now rename your User Profile to whatever you want; for example CAG.

This should work in most cases. If you find you can't use CAG as your new User Profile name, try to change it to something close such as CAG2 or CAG3. If that works, but CAG doesn't, you've got some Windows corruption possibly due to some viruses or malware, and that will need to be fixed. If no virus or malwares are found, and you still can't rename the new account to CAG; you could have a problem with hardware or the Windows itself. If your computer is older than 5 yrs. old this is highly likely. This can usually be remedied by testing your hard drive (post back for instructions), and if OK, a Windows reset or reinstall should solve that problem.

There are about 100 things that I've seen that can cause this kind of problem; and they usually involve some program that was installed and later uninstalled, but uninstalled improperly (or improperly coded), and Windows account corruption is almost certain to have occurred. This is almost certainly true if you recently acquired your computer via purchase or gift; as most folks when they sell a computer (yard sale, pawn shop, etc.) rarely clean it, and even more rarely perform a clean Windows install on it. Since I don't know you, I have no idea if this is the case with your computer, or how you came by it if not yours since it was brand new out of the box. Your biggest issue is to determine whether you have an older computer that has a failing or failed hard drive to be the source of this problem. If your hard drive passes muster, then you have a software problem with Windows and a reinstall is usually required.

Let us know how it turns out or if y ou have further questions.

Best of luck,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

 

[CAG43]

Hello BIGBEARJEDI,

Thank you for welcoming me to the forum. I appreciate your thoughtful response to my question.

I am running Vista Home Premium, Service Pack 2 on a Toshiba Satellite A205-S55825 which I purchased in 2008.

When I go to Control Panel > User Accounts>Manage Another Account I see account CAG, type Administrator. It is my understanding that when I go to C:/Users// the account should appear there but it does not.

I have backed up Drive C to an external media using Macrium Reflect Windows Backup feature and verified the integrity of the backup file.

Using Control Panel, I created another user account called, TEST. This account did not appear under C:/User. I rebooted the computer and looked for it again but did not find it. I returned to Control Panel and created an account called CAG43. When I looked for this account on Drive C/Users it was not there either. There seems to be a discrepancy between how Vista is running on my computer and how it should run.

I examined the contents of C/Users and I found (1) two log files size zero. I deleted them. (2) a file that referenced Norton Power Eraser and indicated an update was needed. I downloaded and installed the Norton Power Eraser update and I ran it. It found no errors so I dragged the folder from C Users to the desktop. Next I ran CCleaner and then I ran Windows Drive Cleaner and deleted unnecessary files.

My system seems to runs efficiently except for this malfunction. What if after testing that I can restore my backup to another drive I wiped the hard drive, tested it and if it passed reinstalled the backup. Or is there a more direct approach?

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Hello BIGBEARJEDI,

Thank you for welcoming me to the forum. I appreciate your thoughtful response to my question.
>>>Sure thing.>>>

I am running Vista Home Premium, Service Pack 2 on a Toshiba Satellite A205-S55825 which I purchased in 2008.
>>>Ok, thanks, that's good you have the most recent Service Pack for Vista. I have an old A205 similar to yours in pieces laying around. I have worked on these before.<<<

When I go to Control Panel > User Accounts>Manage Another Account I see account CAG, type Administrator. It is my understanding that when I go to C:/Users// the account should appear there but it does not.
>>>That's pretty much due to Windows corruption; that could be software based, such as a virus or malware causing the corruption or due to faulty hardware; RAM memory sticks or Hard Drive. You'll need to test both of those to narrow that down. I'll get to that shortly.<<<

I have backed up Drive C to an external media using Macrium Reflect Windows Backup feature and verified the integrity of the backup file.
>>>That's good; Macrium is my preferred Backup Image Cloning software; I've done extensive testing with it. Good choice.<<<

Using Control Panel, I created another user account called, TEST. This account did not appear under C:/User. I rebooted the computer and looked for it again but did not find it. I returned to Control Panel and created an account called CAG43. When I looked for this account on Drive C/Users it was not there either. There seems to be a discrepancy between how Vista is running on my computer and how it should run.
>>>Once again, your Vista is not running correctly, and you have to determine why. Is your problem hardware based or software based? You'll need to do more troubleshooting to determine this. I have Vista on several of my computers, which I still run, including the computer I'm typing this to you on. It does not exhibit the failure you mention; that's because my system is operating properly, your is not, which you already suspect.<<<

I examined the contents of C/Users and I found (1) two log files size zero. I deleted them. (2) a file that referenced Norton Power Eraser and indicated an update was needed. I downloaded and installed the Norton Power Eraser update and I ran it. It found no errors so I dragged the folder from C Users to the desktop. Next I ran CCleaner and then I ran Windows Drive Cleaner and deleted unnecessary files.
>>>Normally, this is not a file you should be running maintenance on or trying to move around. (ntuser.dat.logX). In fact, messing with this file which is by default a Hidden, System, Read-Only file, can easily scramble your Windows entirely. This will not help fix your problem!<<<

My system seems to runs efficiently except for this malfunction. What if after testing that I can restore my backup to another drive I wiped the hard drive, tested it and if it passed reinstalled the backup. Or is there a more direct approach?
>>> Nope. Playing with the backup on another drive is not the best approach, as the drive must be tested just like the one yo have now.
Try this:

TEST SOFTWARE
1.) Start with scanning for viruses or malware. Use whatever Anti-Virus you currently have installed (Norton, Mcafee, Avast), and run a full scan and a boot scan. Follow directions to remove any found viruses. Repeat until your AV reports no threats found.
2.) Download MALWAREBYTES free from malwarebytes.com and scan for Spyware viruses. Clean and remove as per Step #1.

TEST HARDWARE:
1.) Download free MEMTEST (google it), and run for a minimum of 8 passes each RAM stick in your laptop individually (the A205 has 2 sticks possible). If MEMTEST returns any errors, you have a faulty RAM stick and it must be replaced.

2.) Download free SEATOOLS drive diagnostic from seagate.com and run BOTH short and long tests. If SEATOOLS returns any errors, your drive has failed and must be replaced.


Finally, if you complete both of these, Software & Hardware, and find no problems, you can then proceed to a complete factory Windows reinstall or what we call a Windows reset. Since Vista came on that laptop, you should restore to Vista from factory discs or factory RECOVERY partition. Attempt to add a new Administrator User, and retest your ability for it to be seen from Control Panel-->User Accounts. If you can do this, you've fixed your problem, and can do reinstall of your programs at that point. You may also have to do an incremental backup of your current setup prior to attempting this, to restore your data, since if it fixes the problem, your Macrium Image backup won't work since it will overwrite the new Windows Vista reset.

Let us know how it goes...
<<<BBJ>>>