You can easily personalize your PC name, account name, username, and the profile name in Windows 10. If you are using the system with other user’s credentials and want to migrate everything to your own profile, you can follow our guide to change the name everywhere.
Besides renaming Windows 10 the computer, three basic changes are required to completely change Windows 10 account.
- Account name
- Account username
- Profile folder name
We will discuss each step in detail here.
Table of contents
Change Account name in Windows 10
The account name in Windows 10 is just like your display name which may include your nickname or first name or full name. The account name is displayed on the login screen and start menu etc.
To change the account name, follow the steps below:
- Go to Run –> netplwiz. This will open the list of local users on your computer.
netplwiz - Select the desired user and select Properties.
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Open user account properties - On the next window, edit the Full name field. This will change your account name.
Change account name of a user - You may need to log off and log on again for the changes to take effect.
Sign out for the changes to take effect
Change Username in Windows 10
Username is the name that uniquely identifies a user on a computer. You can have the same account name but username needs to be unique. Two users can not have the same username.
To change the username on your Windows 10 computer, follow the steps below:
- Go to Run –> netplwiz. This will open the list of local users on your computer.
- Select the desired user and select Properties.
- On the next window, edit the User name field. This will change your username.
Change username in Windows 10 - You may need to log off and log on again for the changes to take effect.
Change User Profile folder name in Windows 10
The user profile folder is the folder in Windows 10 that stores data and settings of a particular user. Normally, all profile folders are created in the C:\Users folder. Changing the user profile folder name is the trickiest part.
While you will be able to change the profile folder name by simply renaming the folder, most application settings will stop working after that. So you need to be very careful while changing the profile folder name.
To change the user profile folder name, follow the steps below:
- To change the profile folder name, you will need to log in with a different user who is also a member of the Administrators group.
- After logging in with a different admin user, go to the folder C:\Users
- Select the profile folder of your desired user and press F2 to rename the folder.
Change the profile folder name in Windows 10 - Once renamed, go to Run –> Regedit to open the Registry Editor.
- Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE –> SOFTWARE –> Microsoft –> Windows NT –> CurrentVersion –> ProfileList
- Right-click on “ProfileList”. Then click “Find”. Type the old profile folder name.
Find profile in Registry Editor - Double click “ProfileImagePath” and amend “Value data:” to replace the old Profile name to the new one.
Change ProfileImagePath
You can change the three values mentioned in this article to completely customize the account name to your own liking. This helps in further personalizing the computer. I hope this has been helpful to you. If you have any problems following the steps here, let us know through comments and we’ll help you in fixing the issues.
