Changing user name in Windows 7

AndersonButler

Hi,

When I set my new computer up I mis-typed the "user name".

Now all my files are under C:\users\sz instead of c:\users\(my name).

I want to change the user name, but the google results I've found say that it is not possible to change this.

There do appear to be ways round it but they all seem quite complicated.

Does this sound OK?

Create a new administrator account with the name you like.
Copy all of the contents from the old account's C:\Users\(user-name) folders to the corresponding new account's C:\Users\(user-name) folders.
After everything checks out ok, you can delete the old user account from within the new account

jayme1

click Start then click on your little 'user picture', in the window that comes up the 3rd option down is 'Change your account name' click that and type in the new name, done

scottishblondie

While you can change the name that appears on the "login screen" etc by doing that, it won't actually change the name of the folders in the file structure - for some reason these aren't altered and I've recently found it to be totally impossible to change them, even after following several different methods!

I did as the OP is suggesting, created a new user account with the correct name and copied all files over, then deleted the old account.

Aiadi

Yes you are right that it is quite complicated. I have moved backed up my files, created a new admin account, deleted the old one and moved the backed up files onto the new account.

Your other best bet would be to enable the built-in admin account and name it the way you like and then delete your current account. See here:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/7417-built-administrator-account-change-name.html

John_Gray

This is not new behaviour; it exists in Windows XP, and undoubtedly all the way back to Windows NT!

The method suggested by ScottishBlondie is the most straightforward solution to get the Documents and Settings folder names to match the user name.