Windows 7 Win7: How to change username

vicn

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Feb 6, 2010
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When I installed Win7, I picked ABC as my username. Is it possible to change it to say XYZ?

I went to Control Panel, User Accounts and changed the name. On the screen it now shows XYZ, but in the hard drive, everything is still under ABC. For example:
C:\Users\ABC\AppData\Local\Temp\sample-file.txt

What I like to see is:
C:\Users\XYA\AppData\Local\Temp\sample-file.txt

Is this possible?
 
Solution
Short version: You can't, sorry.

Long version: ...you can't, sorry.

There's just too many references to the original folder. Windows doesn't change the folder name because it wouldn't be safe to do so, and likewise it isn't safe to do it manually, either. Any program that hardcodes a path to it would be broken by the change.

The closest you can get would be to create a new account and transfer all the files over. But, needless to say, this presents the issue of installed programs, file ownership, and settings.
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Short version: You can't, sorry.

Long version: ...you can't, sorry.

There's just too many references to the original folder. Windows doesn't change the folder name because it wouldn't be safe to do so, and likewise it isn't safe to do it manually, either. Any program that hardcodes a path to it would be broken by the change.

The closest you can get would be to create a new account and transfer all the files over. But, needless to say, this presents the issue of installed programs, file ownership, and settings.
 
Last edited:
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Solution
If you manually do so, Windows will create a new XYZ user and you will no longer be able to access your old account, though the folder will still be there so you can copy over all your files :\
 
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