How to rename Win system folder?

G

Guest

Hi,

I like to know if it's possible to rename a system folder like e.g.

Change C:\documents and settings\peter to c:\documents and settings\patrick

What happened was I renamed my account name but the above folder name
remains unchanged. I only know of 1 way to rename that folder name, that is
to delete peter's account and create patrick's account.

But that means all my settings will be lost! Unless someone can show me how
to copy all my present settings in my account to another account...Pls help...
 
M

Malke

tommi said:
Hi,

I like to know if it's possible to rename a system folder like e.g.

Change C:\documents and settings\peter to c:\documents and
settings\patrick

What happened was I renamed my account name but the above folder name
remains unchanged. I only know of 1 way to rename that folder name,
that is to delete peter's account and create patrick's account.

But that means all my settings will be lost! Unless someone can show
me how to copy all my present settings in my account to another
account...Pls help...
Click to expand...

You can't just change the user name like that. Create a new user account
"patrick" and log in once. Now log into a user account that has
administrative privileges that is not either peter or patrick. Then
copy the peter account to patrick per:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=811151

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

Once you are satisfied that patrick is exactly the way you want it, you
can delete the peter account from the User Accounts applet in Control
Panel.

Malke
 
P

Pegasus \(MVP\)

tommi said:
Hi,

I like to know if it's possible to rename a system folder like e.g.

Change C:\documents and settings\peter to c:\documents and settings\patrick

What happened was I renamed my account name but the above folder name
remains unchanged. I only know of 1 way to rename that folder name, that is
to delete peter's account and create patrick's account.

But that means all my settings will be lost! Unless someone can show me how
to copy all my present settings in my account to another account...Pls help...
Click to expand...

You have to point the registry to the correct profile folder.
Launch regedit and go to
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList:
Now look at the various subkeys until you find "patrick" in
"ProfileImagePath",
then change it to "patricia" (if this is your new name). Reboot to make
the change effective.
 
G

Guest

It's very inadvisable to change the profile-folder name, as some programs
make direct reference to it in the registrry. Thus you can end-up with a
situation rather like crosslinked-clusters on a disk, where parts of two
profiles become merged.

You'll note that the usermanager allows you to rename a user, but _doesn't_
change the profile-name when it does so. (And you might surmise that there's
a good reason it doesn't...)
 
P

Pegasus \(MVP\)

Ian said:
It's very inadvisable to change the profile-folder name, as some programs
make direct reference to it in the registrry. Thus you can end-up with a
situation rather like crosslinked-clusters on a disk, where parts of two
profiles become merged.

You'll note that the usermanager allows you to rename a user, but _doesn't_
change the profile-name when it does so. (And you might surmise that there's
a good reason it doesn't...)
Click to expand...

This issue is neatly sidestepped when you make the
change in the registry itself. You will end up with a
coherent set of folder names.
 
G

Guest

This issue is neatly sidestepped when you make the
change in the registry itself. You will end up with a
coherent set of folder names.
Click to expand...

Nope.
Well-behaved programs should use the%userprofile% environment-variable to
locate the user's data. Then if you changed the registry setting, all would
be well.

Unfortunately, life being what it its, some programmers take the 'quick and
dirty' approach of creating a registry key or .ini value pointing _directly_
to the data their program uses. Thus, changing the profile-location registry
key won't correct this, and the program will either fall when it can no
longer access the location, over or else will re-create part of the old
profile for itself alone. You'd be surprised how many programs are like this,
even large mainstream apps.
 
J

jammy

I got myself in trouble trying to rename my user name from Owner to <MyName>.
Please Help. I am running WinXP SP3.

I did not like the fact that my account was called "Owner." I tried to
change the name to <MyName> by creating another user called <MyName> and
copying the files in the "Documents and Settings" folder from "Owner" to
<MyName>. I didn't know the correct procedure back then and may have copied
too many files. The <MyName> login was all messed up, especially my Outlook
folders. Also, I noticed that when I logged in as "Owner", some of my system
folders (e.g. Send To, Start Menu) were being accessed from the Document and
Settings of <MyName>!!! Things got crossed between these two accounts.

I deleted the <MyName> account and preserved the files, but the
cross-references to its system folders persist even when I log in as "Owner".

My problem is that my user profile is mixed up across TWO existing user
profiles. So how to I know which files to copy from which profile?

It seems to me that a better solution would be to fix the pointers from my
current profile to point to the the folders in ITS OWN profile. Where do I
find this in the Registry?

I did a SID List command and the results look fine:


*************************************************************
Lists all the user accounts, their SIDs and Profile paths.
SIDList.vbs - Copyright © 2005-2006, Ramesh Srinivasan
WWW: http://windowsxp.mvps.org & http://www.winhelponline.com
*************************************************************

Username : Administrator
SID : S-1-5-21-4084617634-2536189765-442630314-500
Profile dir : C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator

Username : Guest
SID : S-1-5-21-4084617634-2536189765-442630314-501
Profile dir : C:\Documents and Settings\Guest

Username : Owner
SID : S-1-5-21-4084617634-2536189765-442630314-1005
Profile dir : C:\Documents and Settings\Owner

*************************************************************

but obviously there is a problem in cross-referencing system files and
folders below this level. For example, if I am signed on as Owner and do a
right-click and "Send To", the list of options I see are from the file
"C:\Documents and Settings\<myname>\SendTo" instead of "C:\Documents and
Settings\Owner\SendTo"!

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
P

Pegasus \(MVP\)

jammy said:
I got myself in trouble trying to rename my user name from Owner to
<MyName>.
Please Help. I am running WinXP SP3.

I did not like the fact that my account was called "Owner." I tried to
change the name to <MyName> by creating another user called <MyName> and
copying the files in the "Documents and Settings" folder from "Owner" to
<MyName>. I didn't know the correct procedure back then and may have
copied
too many files. The <MyName> login was all messed up, especially my
Outlook
folders. Also, I noticed that when I logged in as "Owner", some of my
system
folders (e.g. Send To, Start Menu) were being accessed from the Document
and
Settings of <MyName>!!! Things got crossed between these two accounts.

I deleted the <MyName> account and preserved the files, but the
cross-references to its system folders persist even when I log in as
"Owner".

My problem is that my user profile is mixed up across TWO existing user
profiles. So how to I know which files to copy from which profile?

It seems to me that a better solution would be to fix the pointers from my
current profile to point to the the folders in ITS OWN profile. Where do I
find this in the Registry?

I did a SID List command and the results look fine:


*************************************************************
Lists all the user accounts, their SIDs and Profile paths.
SIDList.vbs - Copyright © 2005-2006, Ramesh Srinivasan
WWW: http://windowsxp.mvps.org & http://www.winhelponline.com
*************************************************************

Username : Administrator
SID : S-1-5-21-4084617634-2536189765-442630314-500
Profile dir : C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator

Username : Guest
SID : S-1-5-21-4084617634-2536189765-442630314-501
Profile dir : C:\Documents and Settings\Guest

Username : Owner
SID : S-1-5-21-4084617634-2536189765-442630314-1005
Profile dir : C:\Documents and Settings\Owner

*************************************************************

but obviously there is a problem in cross-referencing system files and
folders below this level. For example, if I am signed on as Owner and do a
right-click and "Send To", the list of options I see are from the file
"C:\Documents and Settings\<myname>\SendTo" instead of "C:\Documents and
Settings\Owner\SendTo"!

Thanks in advance for any help.
Click to expand...

By far the simplest way is to create an account under your own name. This
will automatically create a profile folder of the same name as your user
name. After creating this folder, you could log on as Administrator and copy
your data files & EMail files from the "User" to the new profile folder.

The registry location for each user's profile folder is here:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList. I don't know
whether a simple modifcation of this value is effective in your case since
you may have disturbed your system too much.
 

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