How to rename the user profile folder in Windows 10 (C:\Users\Username)

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Folks on Internet often ask how to rename the profile folder in C:\Users. If you are using thge Microsoft account the folder name is usually shortened in a random way and very often looks weird. For instance for the user Tunecomp.net we have the path C:\Users\Tunec\. So let’s see how to change the name of this folder in Windows 10 Pro and Home.

How to rename the user account profile folder in Windows 10

This method works with any edition of Windows 10: Home, Pro or Enterprise but can cause damage to your system.

Make sure to create a full system backup before your try this method!

1. Ensure that you have another admin account. If you do not have such you can temporarily activate the built-in user called Administrator:

net user administrator /active:yes

Note, that if you have non-English version of Windows 10, your Administrator account name will differ. For example, in French version the built-in administrative account has the username “Administrateur”, in Spanish – “Administrador”. Thus, you should specify your exact username otherwise you will get the error “The user name could not be found“! To find out the correct user name type net user in the command line window and hit Enter.

2. Sign out or reboot your PC:

3. Log in to another account:

4. Go to the Users folder (C:\Users by default) and rename the profile folder to whatever you like:

5. Launch the registry editor:

Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\

Find the key related to the account the profile of which you have just renamed, find the ProfileImagePath value and rename the path in it to the new one:

6. An extra step. Perform it if you encounter errors after you changed the path to your profile. Search the registry for ‘old account name’. If you find the values with the old path change it the the new one. Hit “F3” in the registry editor until you correct all entries containing the old path.

Video: How to change the name of the user profile path in Windows 10

Adam Swift

Adam is a real tech maniac. He likes to spend time testing phones, tablets, laptops, as well as any other technical devices, and write practical manuals on their functions. He often sleeps all day, but always works at night. Adam bought his first computer in 1999, being an absolute beginner who never held a computer mouse in his hands. He began to study Windows, constantly experimented and often crashed the operating system. But six months later, he was able to reinstall Windows 98 from a scratch on his own, fix almost any software problem on a PC, he also did hardware upgrades and realized that computers, operating systems and programs are now his biggest passion. In addition, Adam has always been a big lover of phones. With the advent of smartphones with Android OS, he began to pick at them much more than in computers. Now Adam loves to study privacy issues in instant messengers, blocking unwanted calls and other nuances related to privacy and security on the network. You can follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tunecomp

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View Comments

rh says:

2016-12-26 at 18:14

Followed the directions but it didn't work early on. After a reboot and signing on as administrator I tried to change the folder name in the explorer (e.g. tunec to tunecomp.net) but got the error:
"Folder in Use
The action can't be completed because the folder of file in it is open in another program."
I thought is was because the c: drive was shared so I unshared, rebooted, and retried but got the same error. This installation of Win10 is only a few days old.
- Quinn McCorkle says:
  
  2017-01-23 at 03:16
  
  Hello! If you solved this please let me know! It's absolutely killing me, and I'm not bad at CS.
  - Varun S.Kumar says:
    
    2017-04-16 at 13:47
    
    I had this problem and what I noted is that you should close all open programs(even an explorer window) and "SIGN OUT" before entering the new Administrator account.
    Hope this helps!!
    - Noemi says:
      
      2017-07-11 at 08:32
      
      It works for me thanks, Varun S.Kumar .
      I did restart three-time my PC before to rename user folder.
      - Jeong says:
        
        2020-03-24 at 05:54
        
        I encountered same problem. I solve it by restarting the computer.
Satyam Srivastava says:

2016-12-27 at 20:14

Hello,
Firstly you need to sign out from the user account you wish to change.Simply go to start menu click on the user icon then on sign out option,now sign in with administrator account and you are all done.
Hope this will help you!
Thanks
- Jil Paquette says:
  
  2017-03-11 at 03:48
  
  Hi,
  When I try to log in to the Administrator account I created using these steps, it requires a password, which I never set. Is there a default password or how can I set this?
  
  Thanks
Ben says:

2016-12-31 at 16:21

So did I just wreck my OneDrive with this? It doesn't seem to be functioning. How can I restore it?
- tune says:
  
  2016-12-31 at 17:16
  
  You can always revert changes by renaming to the previous exact name. And besides that you can restore your OneDrive using our guide and set a new OneDrive folder location:
  //tunecomp.net/move-onedrive-folder-windows-10/
Quinn McCorkle says:

2017-01-23 at 03:07

I am having the exact same problem as "rh": “Folder in Use
The action can’t be completed because the folder of file in it is open in another program.”

This is on a laptop in which the other user cannot possibly be open, I'm running admin. Meaning that the solution proposed by "Satyam Srivastava" also does not help.
Mwenda Sammy says:

2017-02-17 at 14:06

The procedure worked finally worked for me after a trying different methods.Thanks
- Apollyon says:
  
  2017-04-08 at 03:34
  
  What methods did you try? Do you remember? Honestly, Microsoft is ridiculous for doing this to people. I need my username folder to be the same as it was on my last installation of Windows so that I can get certain programs that rely on My Documents to work without having to change hundreds of entries manually.
Vicki says:

2017-02-21 at 04:09

This worked absolutely wonderful for me. I searched for months on how to fix this issue. Thank you so much for this.
Jay says:

2017-02-22 at 22:28

I had same issue as rh, couldn't rename, but did a full restart at that point and I was able to rename and follow the rest of the steps...Worked fully, thanks
Bryan Hoang says:

2017-03-19 at 00:42

Thank you for the kind of risky registry editing steps. Step 6 went without a hitch. Thank you!
I NEED HELP says:

2017-04-06 at 23:37

My computer wont let me use my full account only the temporary
John says:

2017-05-17 at 19:21

Unfortunately like several others I came to a complete stop at the renaming part of this... - Even tried the reboot, even a cold start but it still kept refusing to let me rename the folder.
- Anonymous says:
  
  2019-01-16 at 00:14
  
  So did I. I am not sure what I am doing wrong. It keeps asking me to close windows in other profile down and I have restarted my laptop