Users & Documents and Settings confusion

[divoch]

I have a laptop and desktop which I would like to unify in terms of user
names and file locations.
Both appear to have just two visible user accounts, lets say Fred (admin)
and Guest account. These are visible in the Control panel under User
Accounts.
However, under C:/Documents and Settings
- on the laptop there are three folders named: All users, Default user
(hidden) and Fred Smith. All data I am actually using such as Favorites, My
Documents are under Fred Smith. Also OE address book is there under
Applications Data (hidden). As the name under Documents and Settings is
Fred Smith and not Fred I am not sure if they are one and the same "user" or
not. When I tried to rename the Fred Smith I could not - I was told because
it is a system folder required by Windows and cannot be re-named.
- on the desktop there are only two folders named: All users, and User. All
data I am actually using such as Favorites, My Documents are under User.
Also OE address book is there under Applications Data (hidden). As the
name under Documents and Settings is User and not Fred I am again not
entirely sure if they are one and the same "user" or not although it looks
that way. When I tried to rename the User I could not - I was told because
it is a system folder required by Windows and cannot be re-named.

Does it mean that I am now stuck and cannot on the desktop change User into
Fred Smith in any way?

Thanks
divoch

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

You cannot change the Documents and Settings\<user account> folders, as you have already discovered.

The only way to change a user account name is to change the name from within the Control Panel/User Accounts to match the name in Documents and Settings. Select Change an account, select the account and then select Change my name. You can change the name to Fred Smith on the laptop which matches the user account files name. You can ignore the All users and Default user, these are there for otheer purposes.

On the Desktop, you will just need to leave it the way it is unless you want to change Fred to User.

You also need to enable the Welcome Screen so that you can see which user you are logging onto the system with when you start up. To do this, go to Control Panel/User Accounts and select Change the way users log on or off.

 

[divoch]

Thanks for the explanation.
I can see that I am somewhat stuck with it which is shame because desktop
had Win XP recently re-installed. Had I known this I could have asked the
shop to enter the same user account name during the installation as that in
the laptop.
The implication is that in one case the OE address book is user.wab and in
the other Fred Smith.wab. Because they are not the same name I cannot
synchronise address books using the SyncBackSE as I can My Documents,
Favorits and even Outlook Express store because they have identical names.

Regards
divoch


You cannot change the Documents and Settings\<user account> folders, as you
have already discovered.

The only way to change a user account name is to change the name from within
the Control Panel/User Accounts to match the name in Documents and Settings.
Select Change an account, select the account and then select Change my name.
You can change the name to Fred Smith on the laptop which matches the user
account files name. You can ignore the All users and Default user, these are
there for otheer purposes.

On the Desktop, you will just need to leave it the way it is unless you want
to change Fred to User.

You also need to enable the Welcome Screen so that you can see which user
you are logging onto the system with when you start up. To do this, go to
Control Panel/User Accounts and select Change the way users log on or off.