Changed user name but directory name unchanged?

[dk_]

XP SP2, I changed my original factory user name, (HP_Owner), to my new
name (dk), but the directory name did not change.

Q) If I manually re-name the directory, will it break XP?

original user name: HP_Owner
new user name: dk

path:

HP_Pavillion (C
-->>Documents and Settings
---->>HP_Owner (<<--this directory should read ('dk'). Can I rename it?
------>>several other folders here.


Thanks.

-Dennis

 

[Tom Porterfield]

XP SP2, I changed my original factory user name, (HP_Owner), to my new
name (dk), but the directory name did not change.

Nor should it. One is simply the account name, the other is the profile
directory for the account. By default when a new account is created its
profile directory gets the login name. But you can rename the user
account after that. Doing so does not change the profile directory.

Q) If I manually re-name the directory, will it break XP?

original user name: HP_Owner
new user name: dk

path:

HP_Pavillion (C
-->>Documents and Settings
---->>HP_Owner (<<--this directory should read ('dk'). Can I rename it?
------>>several other folders here.

Manually renaming it will break a number of things. If you really want
to directory name to match the login name, the safest way is to create a
new login account with the name you want and then copy the old profile
to the new one. For help on how to copy a profile, search for "copy
profile" in help and support.
--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP Windows
http://support.telop.org

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup only.

 

[dk_]

Nor should it. One is simply the account name, the other is the profile
directory for the account. By default when a new account is created its
profile directory gets the login name. But you can rename the user
account after that. Doing so does not change the profile directory.

Q) Profile (name) vs. account (name). This is very confusing for me. Can
you explain this a little more for me.

Q) After I follow the instructions to copy the old profile to the new
one, (below as per your recommendation) is there any problem at all with
deleting the original (HP_Owner) profile?

Q) If it is OK to delete the original profile, how can I do that?

Manually renaming it will break a number of things. If you really want
to directory name to match the login name, the safest way is to create a
new login account with the name you want and then copy the old profile
to the new one. For help on how to copy a profile, search for "copy
profile" in help and support.

Thank you for explaining that!
I will search the help for info.

Thanks again.

-Dennis

 

[Tom Porterfield]

Q) Profile (name) vs. account (name). This is very confusing for me. Can
you explain this a little more for me.

Profile directory (ie. c:\documents and settings\hp_owner) is the
profile directory for the account that now has the name dk. So simply
put one is the name of a folder on the hard drive and the other is the
name of the account.

Q) After I follow the instructions to copy the old profile to the new
one, (below as per your recommendation) is there any problem at all with
deleting the original (HP_Owner) profile?

No problem.

Q) If it is OK to delete the original profile, how can I do that?

Log in with an account that has administrative rights and is not the
account you want to delete. Right click on My Computer and select
Properties. Go to the Advanced tab and click settings under User
Profiles. This will bring up a list of profiles on your computer.
Select the profile you want to delete and click the Delete button.
--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP Windows
http://support.telop.org

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup only.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

XP SP2, I changed my original factory user name, (HP_Owner), to my new
name (dk), but the directory name did not change.

Q) If I manually re-name the directory, will it break XP?

original user name: HP_Owner
new user name: dk

path:

HP_Pavillion (C
-->>Documents and Settings
---->>HP_Owner (<<--this directory should read ('dk'). Can I rename it?
------>>several other folders here.

The user profile folders (C:\Documents and Settings\Username)
_cannot_ be renamed, even if the associated user account has been.
So, your best course of action would be to log on using the built-in
Administrator account, create a new user account, with the username
desired. You can then delete the old user account(s).

HOW TO Create and Configure User Accounts in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;279783

How to Copy User Data to a New User Profile
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;811151


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[Nightowl]

Bruce Chambers wrote on Tue, 9 Aug 2005:

So, your best course of action would be to log on using the built-in
Administrator account, create a new user account, with the username
desired. You can then delete the old user account(s).

Bruce, I have a quick question about this: when I tried copying A's
profile to B, B ended up with "A's Documents" etc. instead of "My
Documents". Is there a way round this, please?

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Bruce, I have a quick question about this: when I tried copying A's
profile to B, B ended up with "A's Documents" etc. instead of "My
Documents". Is there a way round this, please?

Beats me. I've never tried over-writing one "My Documents" folder with
another; I've always copied the contents of the old profile's My
Document folder into the equivalent folder of the new profile.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Hi Nightowl,

Have you tried altering the My Documents folder's Desktop.ini [DeleteOnCopy]
section?

An example | similar problem caused by the "Owner" string.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q321281/

See also:
How to rename or move a User Profile folder?:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/userpath.htm

 

[dk_]

[...snip]

Q) After I follow the instructions to copy the old profile to the new
one, (below as per your recommendation) is there any problem at all with
deleting the original (HP_Owner) profile?

No problem.

Q) If it is OK to delete the original profile, how can I do that?

Log in with an account that has administrative rights and is not the
account you want to delete. Right click on My Computer and select
Properties. Go to the Advanced tab and click settings under User
Profiles. This will bring up a list of profiles on your computer.
Select the profile you want to delete and click the Delete button.

I had one heck of a time doing that. ...I finally figured out that I had
to disable "AVG Anti-Virus", (actually I had to removed the program,
because I couldn't seem to stop all it's associated processes or
something).

Thank you.

-Dennis

 

[Tom Porterfield]

I had one heck of a time doing that. ...I finally figured out that I had
to disable "AVG Anti-Virus", (actually I had to removed the program,
because I couldn't seem to stop all it's associated processes or
something).

Thank you.

No problem, glad you finally got it done.
--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP Windows
http://support.telop.org

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup only.

 

[Nightowl]

Bruce Chambers wrote on Wed, 10 Aug 2005:

Beats me. I've never tried over-writing one "My Documents"
folder with another; I've always copied the contents of the old
profile's My Document folder into the equivalent folder of the new
profile.

Oh? Then you don't use the method usually recommended here (Control
Panel > System > Advanced tab, User Profiles > Settings button, select
profile and Copy To) ? If you do this it copies all the folders -- I
don't see any option for excluding My Documents and sub-folders.

Do you copy all the folders in the original profile manually?

 

[Nightowl]

Ramesh, MS-MVP wrote on Thu, 11 Aug 2005:

Have you tried altering the My Documents folder's Desktop.ini
[DeleteOnCopy] section?

An example | similar problem caused by the "Owner" string.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q321281/

See also:
How to rename or move a User Profile folder?:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/userpath.htm

Thank you, Ramesh. Those articles were very interesting.

Would you delete the Owner string from the desktop.ini before or after
copying the profile?

The second reference in Bruce's reply, to KB811151:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151
is actually called "How to copy data from a corrupted user profile to a
new profile" and shows a manual copying method rather than the one I
have learned from reading here, which is detailed on Kelly's site:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_logon.htm#usercopy

 

[Nightowl]

Nightowl wrote on Thu, 11 Aug 2005:

[Ramesh MVP wrote:]

Have you tried altering the My Documents folder's Desktop.ini
[DeleteOnCopy] section?

Ramesh, I tried it and you were exactly right! Deleting the Owner string
did it, and everything worked perfectly this time. Thank you very much,
I'll remember this trick for the future.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Do you copy all the folders in the original profile manually?

Yes, I do it manually. (This was how it was done in WinNT and Win2K,
so I've never gotten into the habit of using the more user friendly
automated method.)


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

You're welcome Nightowl.

--
Ramesh, Windows XP MVP
http://windowsxp.mvps.org

Nightowl wrote on Thu, 11 Aug 2005:

[Ramesh MVP wrote:]

Have you tried altering the My Documents folder's Desktop.ini
[DeleteOnCopy] section?

Ramesh, I tried it and you were exactly right! Deleting the Owner string
did it, and everything worked perfectly this time. Thank you very much,
I'll remember this trick for the future.