Rename user profile folder Windows 10

Windows 10 stores all user preferences and settings in a user profile. The user profile is a folder located in C:\Users\. It includes all account settings like the selected desktop background, screen saver, File Explorer options and many others. If you need to rename this folder after creating the user profile, here is how it can be done.

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Can I rename user account folder?
How do I rename a user profile and related profile in Windows 10?
Can I rename user folder in Windows 11?
How do I rename a folder in Windows 10?

A user profile is a set of files and folders to store all personal preferences, app settings, documents and other data. Every user account has an associated user profile. Usually, it is stored in the folder C:\Users\Username and includes a number of subfolders like Desktop, Documents, Downloads, etc along with hidden folders like AppData which store the settings for various Windows features and installed apps. The main purpose of the user profile is to create a personalized environment with individual options tailored to the end user.

To rename your user account folder under C:\Users, you need to find your user account's security identifier (SID). There is a special console command which you can use to obtain information about user accounts in Windows 10. It will allow you to find the SID, and plenty of other information. It is covered in detail in this article:

View User Account Details in Windows 10 for All Users

In short, run the following command:

wmic useraccount list full

Here is the sample output:

Note the SID value for your account.

You cannot rename the current user profile which you are signed in with. You need to use another user account with administrative privileges. If you don't have another administrative account, you have to create one before proceeding. Then, sign out from the user account whose profile folder you need to rename and sign-in with the other administrative account.

To rename the user profile folder in Windows 10, do the following.

Using File Explorer, go to the c:\Users folder from the other Administrator account and rename your profile folder to what you want.
Open Registry Editor.
Go to the following Registry key:
```
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
```
Tip: See how to jump to the desired Registry key with one click.
In the left pane, find the key named by the SID value you've noted.
This key is related to the profile which you've renamed.
Look at the value data for the ProfileImagePath parameter on the right. Modify it according to the new path to the profile you have renamed.
Close Regedit.exe and restart Windows 10.

This trick should work for all previous versions of Microsoft Windows.

You are done!

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Microsoft has actually documented a very simple and clean way to rename a user profile folder.

EDIT Feb 2022: If you plan to use winget to manage your Windows installations at any point, note that Microsoft now warns against using this procedure under Windows 10 or later as it can stop winget working. Information about winget

There is no need to create a new user account, so all the settings associated with the existing user profile are preserved. And the only registry change required is to edit a single string value (the one that tells Windows the path of the user profile folder):

Log in by using another administrative account.
Note. You may need to create a new Administrative account at first.
Go to the C:\users\ folder and rename the subfolder with the original user name to the new user name.
Go to the registry and modify the registry value ProfileImagePath to the new path name.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\<User SID>\

That's it!

The procedure quoted above was provided by Microsoft (here) in relation to a perceived issue with Windows 7, and continues to work in Windows 10.

Notes

<User SID>

The ProfileList registry key contains a number of sub-keys. To find out which one to change, click on each sub-key and examine the values, to find the sub-key with the right ProfileImagePath:

For example, let's say we want to get rid of the space in a user profile folder name. So in step 2, we use File Explorer to navigate to C:\Users and rename the John Smith subfolder JohnSmith. And in step 3, we click on the <User SID> sub-keys until we find the one with ProfileImagePath C:\Users\John Smith, and change it to C:\Users\JohnSmith.

Administrative login

You may find you have to restart instead of just logging out and logging back in. Otherwise, when you try to rename the folder, Windows may report that it is being used by another program.

Environment variables (info)

Some applications create env vars with the user profile path fully expanded, so it's advisable to check for these and reboot if any needed fixing.

Can I rename user account folder?

You can go to C drive (the OS drive) -> Users folder. Then click the search box at the upper-right in File Explorer, and search the user folder name you want to change. In the search result list, find the user folder and right-click it and you will see the Rename option.

Right-click at the user profile folder that you want to rename (e.g. from "Mike" to "John") and select Rename. * Important: The new name must be the same with the name in the "ProfileImagePath" value in registry (e.g. "C:\Users\John").

Can I rename user folder in Windows 11?

Press Win + R, type regedit and click OK to open Registry Editor. Inside the ProfileList key, locate and click on the key name identical to the SID you made a note of earlier. In the right-pane, right-click on ProfileImagePath value and select Modify. Enter a name you want for the profile folder and click OK.

How do I rename a folder in Windows 10?

Rename a document, folder, or link in a document library Click the ellipses (...) to the right of the item name, and then click Rename. In the Rename dialog, type the new name into the field, and then click Save.