charles said:
When my laptop became slow and my hard drive thrashed
constantly, I decided to reload XP home. During the reload,
it asked what I wanted to name this machine. I entered
"LAPTOP". When it finished, there were two subdirectories
C:\Documents and Settings\Charles Cashion
C:\Documents and Settings\Charles Cashion.LAPTOP
Now when I login, it references everything to the
"Charles Cashion.LAPTOP" user.
I want to delete "Charles Cashion.LAPTOP", but I am not
sure what is going to result. I want to login to plain
"Charles Cashion".
Start > Control Panel > User Accounts does not
acknowledge that "Charles Cashion.LAPTOP" exists.
I hope that I have not discovered a unique, never before
seen problem.
Shenan said:
You did not wipe the drive and start anew.
Your current user *is* Charles Cashion.LAPTOP.
Your previous pofile is under Charles Cashion.
charles said:
YES. I believe you are correct. I did not wipe my HD.
YES. I believe the current user is "Charles Cashion.LAPTOP".
I believe because of the command line prompt
when I run Start > Run > cmd I get
C:\Documents and Settings\Charles Cashion.LAPTOP> _
I want to change the names
Charles Cashion => Charles Cashion.old
Charles Cashion.LAPTOP => Charles Cashion
Then I want to copy "Charles Cashion.old" to a CD
and delete it.
Why? Just to make it 'pretty'?
To make it 'look' like you want it to?
Seriously - that is all you are doing.
Any decent software will utilize the environment variables and use the
correct path.
Any crappy software will likely do the same.
However - to do what you want...
(And do it correctly so it causes no future problems...)
- Create an administrative level account.
- Reboot and log in as that administrative account.
- Rename the "Charles Cashion" directory to "Charles Cashion.OLD".
* Special note at the bottom of these...
- Log out.
- Log in as "Charles Cashion".
- Use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to export the profile settings
to a safe place (like C:\MyProfile) on your computer.
- Reboot.
- Log back on as the administrative user that you did the last time you
rebooted.
- Delete everything that has to do with the "Charles Cashion" user account.
- Control Panel --> Users (DELETE EVERYTHING.)
- Make sure the directory ("Charles Cashion.LAPTOP") is gone.
- Edit the registry and find the SID (if still there) related to both the
"Charles Cashion.LAPTOP" and "Charles Cashion" accounts and delete their
folders. **where is this?
- Reboot.
- Log back on as the administrative user that you did the last time you
rebooted.
- Create a new user account called "Charles Cashion".
- Log out and log in as "Charles Cashion".
- Look in %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\ and verify it created what
you wanted.
- If so - use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to import the
settings/files from your old "Charles Cashion.LAPTOP" that you exported a
few steps ago.
- Reboot and continue using your now 'more pretty' computer.
* Special note:
It is possible you could simplify all of the steps beyond this point - but
it could cause issues down the line. If you want to try it - that is up to
you; I would only try it if you have installed VERY little on this computer.
The following can be substituted for everything after the * note above...
- Rename the "Charles Cashion.LAPTOP" directory to "Charles Cashion"
- Edit the registry so that what used to point to "%SystemDrive%\Documents
and Settings\Charles Cashion.LAPTOP" now points to "%SystemDrive%\Documents
and Settings\Charles Cashion". ** where is this?
- Reboot.
- Log in as Charles Cashion.
- Check to see if it changed things like you wanted (no "Charles
Cashion.LAPTOP" directory.)
- Continue using your now 'more pretty' computer.
** where is this?
REGEDIT
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
- There are many SIDs there representing your users (Folders) - look in
them and pay special attention to the "ProfileImagePath" value. That will
tell you which one is the one you want.
IMHO:
I do not know what you hope to gain out of this other than something that
'looks' like you want it to. The functionality is already there and
everything will work as intended if just left alone. The directory path to
your profile is stored in the system and is properly addressed by the
system. There are MANY MANY directories you may not like how they are
organized/naming schemes/etc - but as long as they are addressed correctly
(as intended) - you are better of letting Windows manage it.
However - I hope that my instructions start leading you down whatever path
you choose to follow.
If you have further questions - please feel free to ask!
