Documents and Settings Folder - User Name

  • Thread starter Thread starter Scott
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Scott

Hi,
Hope someone can help. I had my computer built and I
bought Windows XP Home Edition to use. When the guy set
it up on install he mispelled my name. "Under Documents
and Settings>name" where all users are listed in seperate
folders it is mispelled. I checked the knowledge base and
they say you cannot change it. Does anyone know how to
correct the spelling? What registry key do I go into or
do I have to reinstall?

Thanks!
Scott
 
Scott said:
Hi,
Hope someone can help. I had my computer built and I
bought Windows XP Home Edition to use. When the guy set
it up on install he mispelled my name. "Under Documents
and Settings>name" where all users are listed in seperate
folders it is mispelled. I checked the knowledge base and
they say you cannot change it. Does anyone know how to
correct the spelling? What registry key do I go into or
do I have to reinstall?

Thanks!
Scott
Click to expand...

No need to reinstall, but you cannot change this in the registry. You can
change the name that appears on the log in screen, start menu and other
places by simply correcting the spelling in User Accounts, but the name on
the Documents and Settings folder will not be changed.

You can create a new account with the correct spelling, take ownership of
the old accounts files and then copy the old user profile to the new
profile. Follow the steps in these articles to do this.

How to Copy User Data to a New User Profile:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811151

HOW TO: Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

--
Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP-Windows Shell/User

Please reply to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
http://www.dts-l.org
http://www.mvps.org
 
Ronnie:
Thanks! I will give it a try. Sounds like a simple problem
but difficult to correct. Is it easier to just reinstall
the operating system and give my correct spelling?

Thanks!
Scott
 
Scott said:
Ronnie:
Thanks! I will give it a try. Sounds like a simple problem
but difficult to correct. Is it easier to just reinstall
the operating system and give my correct spelling?
Click to expand...

Scott

I wouldn't recommend reinstalling. Chance that you could lose some data.
--
Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP-Windows Shell/User

Please reply to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
http://www.dts-l.org
http://www.mvps.org
 
Ronnie:
Thanks again for the info. Last night I printed out the
knowledge base articles that you suggested and went
through each. I was able to get the files copied over to a
new user but I could not delete the old mispelled folder
because it said it was a "windows system folder and cannot
be deleted". I went into safe mode and tried to take
ownership rights and was unable to do it because I could
not get to the security tab on the folder. How do you do
that? Somehow though I still lost some data in the
process. All my settings for outlook were gone and all the
files like .doc and .xls files disappeared. I did a system
recovery but could not get back to it's original state so
I must have messed something up when I copied the stuff
over. I reinstalled office and got outlook up and running
but will have to go to my back up for some of my files. I
think most are gone though.
Any ideas?

Thanks!
Scott
 
Scott said:
Ronnie:
Thanks again for the info. Last night I printed out the
knowledge base articles that you suggested and went
through each. I was able to get the files copied over to a
new user but I could not delete the old mispelled folder
because it said it was a "windows system folder and cannot
be deleted". I went into safe mode and tried to take
ownership rights and was unable to do it because I could
not get to the security tab on the folder. How do you do
that? Somehow though I still lost some data in the
process. All my settings for outlook were gone and all the
files like .doc and .xls files disappeared. I did a system
recovery but could not get back to it's original state so
I must have messed something up when I copied the stuff
over. I reinstalled office and got outlook up and running
but will have to go to my back up for some of my files. I
think most are gone though.
Any ideas?

Thanks!
Scott
Click to expand...


Scott

Not sure what might have gone wrong if you followed the instructions to the
letter. Are you sure those documents are gone? You might want to check the
folders where they were stored again after loggong on with the built-in
administrator account.


--
Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

Please reply to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
http://www.dts-l.org
http://www.mvps.org
 
Ronnie said:
Not sure what might have gone wrong if you followed the instructions to the
letter. Are you sure those documents are gone? You might want to check the
folders where they were stored again after loggong on with the built-in
administrator account.
Click to expand...

Ronnie:
Anymore I am not sure what account is the true
administrator. In Explorer under Documents and
settings>"name spelled wrong" the files are not there.
When I log on to XP the screen that shows up with my name,
I click on and go into Explorer and the files do not exist
because I had to revert back to the old name and deleted
the new folder that I created because I could not delete
the old one. It still kept saying the you could not delete
a system file on the old one. I think that somehow I must
have deleted the files.
Could the files still be there somewhere and not know it
because of the administrator status? Is there a way to
check to see if they still exist? What is the built in
Administrator account and how do I log on to it?
Ronnie: thanks for all your time on this issue. I feel
like a real dummy!

Scott Sokolich
 
Ronnie:
I have been trying to think this thing through. I think
that you may be correct in that everything is still there
somewhere that I just can't see it because they are
hidden. Maybe "view files" "hidden", "system" needs to be
unchecked?How do I know that I am the original
administrator on the computer?
When I log on at the welcome screen with my name and then
go into control panel, users, it shows me as
administrator. What would logging into the "built in
administrator" in safe mode do that the other wouldn't?
And if I do log into the built-in administrator, how do I
get myself to be the "real" administrator if I am not
already? May be a dumb question. If in safe mode, logged
in as administrator, can I create a new "Documents and
Settings - Scott Sokolich", take ownership of the old user
and copy the old folders and files over to "Documents and
Settings - Scott Sokolich". Then take owner ship of the
new one and delete the old one? Am I then still the
administrator? I know this is something like what you told
me to do in the first place when things went haywire
originally in the first attempt at safe mode. Originally,
in safe mode I don't think that I was logged in
as "administrator".
 
Ronnie:
I finally figured it out. What I did was to log on as the
built in administrator as you said. In Safe mode I went to
Control panel, System, advanced, users, settings and
copied everything over to a new name then deleted the old.
I rebooted and went into the registry I modified every
entry that had the old name reference to the new name and
it worked like a charm. I still have not been able to
recover my deleted files though. I even got file-saver and
ran the program and none of them came up. But anyway,
thanks for the help!

Scott Sokolich
 
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