User name change

In C:\ My name used to be "Rene", Now I notice since the clean install
It is "rlamo", How and where can I change it back to "Rene" ?

Windows 10 1903 18362.175

Thanks Rene

Rene Lamontagne wrote:
In C:\ My name used to be "Rene", Now I notice since the clean install
It is "rlamo", How and where can I change it back to "Rene" ?

Windows 10 1903 18362.175

Thanks Rene

Looks like damaged from the usage of an MSA.

I wonder what the recommended "best practice" is for this ?

Because it sucks, and it's happened to me before, and it
screws up file sharing and so on.

Paul

On 24/06/2019 19.33, Paul wrote:
Rene Lamontagne wrote:
In C:\ My name used to be "Rene", Now I notice since the clean install
It is "rlamo", How and where can I change it back to "Rene" ?

Windows 10 1903 18362.175

Â*Thanks Rene

Looks like damaged from the usage of an MSA.

I wonder what the recommended "best practice" is for this ?

Because it sucks, and it's happened to me before, and it
screws up file sharing and so on.

I once changed my user name (not a Microsoft account). Perhaps under W7.
I changed it, and it seemed to work: the login changed, the correct name
was displayed... but internally, the filesystem had both names. Linked,
perhaps, I don't remember. A pain in the nameless backside.


--
Cheers, Carlos.

Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 24/06/2019 19.33, Paul wrote:
Rene Lamontagne wrote:
In C:\ My name used to be "Rene", Now I notice since the clean install
It is "rlamo", How and where can I change it back to "Rene" ?

Windows 10 1903 18362.175

Thanks Rene
Looks like damaged from the usage of an MSA.

I wonder what the recommended "best practice" is for this ?

Because it sucks, and it's happened to me before, and it
screws up file sharing and so on.

I once changed my user name (not a Microsoft account). Perhaps under W7.
I changed it, and it seemed to work: the login changed, the correct name
was displayed... but internally, the filesystem had both names. Linked,
perhaps, I don't remember. A pain in the nameless backside.

But that's not what we're discussing here.

We're discussing "what happens if you select MSA during Win10 install"
and happen to fall for the "recommended" path of using an MSA, versus
a local account. The MSA becomes the "naming convention" for the
home dir, at odds with the rest of your computing room. I recognize
that pattern, and that dir name came from an MSA (characters extracted
from the beginning of the MSA).

Of course you can mess around, and get yourself into a lot
of trouble by changing (again) the home directory name.
I wouldn't personally recommend this approach to anyone,
because you're swimming upstream when you do that. That's
just asking for trouble.

Paul

On 24/06/2019 19:33, Paul wrote:
Rene Lamontagne wrote:
In C:\ My name used to be "Rene", Now I notice since the clean install
It is "rlamo", How and where can I change it back to "Rene" ?

Windows 10 1903 18362.175

Â*Thanks Rene

Looks like damaged from the usage of an MSA.

I wonder what the recommended "best practice" is for this ?

Because it sucks, and it's happened to me before, and it
screws up file sharing and so on.

Â*Â* Paul

I know you can change the user name, but the folder names of the account
won't change. So you can change the user (login) name to Rene, but your
folder name will still be C:\Users\rlamo.
What I would do, is copy all stuff from that directory to an external
drive, remove the account, create a new account under your name, and
copy it all back.

What do you think, Paul?

Fokke

Fokke Nauta wrote:
On 24/06/2019 19:33, Paul wrote:
Rene Lamontagne wrote:
In C:\ My name used to be "Rene", Now I notice since the clean
install It is "rlamo", How and where can I change it back to "Rene" ?

Windows 10 1903 18362.175

Thanks Rene

Looks like damaged from the usage of an MSA.

I wonder what the recommended "best practice" is for this ?

Because it sucks, and it's happened to me before, and it
screws up file sharing and so on.

Paul

I know you can change the user name, but the folder names of the account
won't change. So you can change the user (login) name to Rene, but your
folder name will still be C:\Users\rlamo.
What I would do, is copy all stuff from that directory to an external
drive, remove the account, create a new account under your name, and
copy it all back.

What do you think, Paul?

Fokke

I'm just going by my recollection this is not side-effect-free.

The registry could be full of references to a path like that.

If I thought this was somehow officially supported, I'd be
telling you to jump in with both feet.

Paul

On 2019-06-24 2:06 p.m., Fokke Nauta wrote:
On 24/06/2019 19:33, Paul wrote:
Rene Lamontagne wrote:
In C:\ My name used to be "Rene", Now I notice since the clean
install It is "rlamo", How and where can I change it back to "Rene" ?

Windows 10 1903 18362.175

Â*Thanks Rene

Looks like damaged from the usage of an MSA.

I wonder what the recommended "best practice" is for this ?

Because it sucks, and it's happened to me before, and it
screws up file sharing and so on.

Â*Â*Â* Paul

I know you can change the user name, but the folder names of the account
won't change. So you can change the user (login) name to Rene, but your
folder name will still be C:\Users\rlamo.
What I would do, is copy all stuff from that directory to an external
drive, remove the account, create a new account under your name, and
copy it all back.

What do you think, Paul?

Fokke


Yes, I did use my MSA when I did the fresh install, It's not a huge deal
but it pee's me off because I hate things that are not "Just Right".
If nothing else shows up I will try your suggestion, I have good backups
from yesterday.

Rene


Rene

On 6/24/19 5:01 PM, Rene Lamontagne wrote:
On 2019-06-24 2:06 p.m., Fokke Nauta wrote:
On 24/06/2019 19:33, Paul wrote:
Rene Lamontagne wrote:
In C:\ My name used to be "Rene", Now I notice since the clean
install It is "rlamo", How and where can I change it back to "Rene" ?

Windows 10 1903 18362.175

Â*Thanks Rene

Looks like damaged from the usage of an MSA.

I wonder what the recommended "best practice" is for this ?

Because it sucks, and it's happened to me before, and it
screws up file sharing and so on.

Â*Â*Â* Paul

I know you can change the user name, but the folder names of the
account won't change. So you can change the user (login) name to Rene,
but your folder name will still be C:\Users\rlamo.
What I would do, is copy all stuff from that directory to an external
drive, remove the account, create a new account under your name, and
copy it all back.

What do you think, Paul?

Fokke


Yes, I did use my MSA when I did the fresh install, It's not a huge deal
but it pee's me off because I hate things that are notÂ* "Just Right".
If nothing else shows up I will try your suggestion, I have good backups
from yesterday.

Rene


Rene


I've done a few installs and found this out just like Rene did.
My current practice is to load Windows and not use the MSA and use a
local account where I can use alan (lower case) as my name. Once I'm
done, I go into account settings a switch it to MSA and all is fine. The
now linked MSA account with my hardware activates the system and my home
is C:\users\alan as all my tools etc want it to be.

Al

On 2019-06-24 4:01 p.m., Rene Lamontagne wrote:
On 2019-06-24 2:06 p.m., Fokke Nauta wrote:
On 24/06/2019 19:33, Paul wrote:
Rene Lamontagne wrote:
In C:\ My name used to be "Rene", Now I notice since the clean
install It is "rlamo", How and where can I change it back to "Rene" ?

Windows 10 1903 18362.175

Â*Thanks Rene

Looks like damaged from the usage of an MSA.

I wonder what the recommended "best practice" is for this ?

Because it sucks, and it's happened to me before, and it
screws up file sharing and so on.

Â*Â*Â* Paul

I know you can change the user name, but the folder names of the
account won't change. So you can change the user (login) name to Rene,
but your folder name will still be C:\Users\rlamo.
What I would do, is copy all stuff from that directory to an external
drive, remove the account, create a new account under your name, and
copy it all back.

What do you think, Paul?

Fokke


Yes, I did use my MSA when I did the fresh install, It's not a huge deal
but it pee's me off because I hate things that are notÂ* "Just Right".
If nothing else shows up I will try your suggestion, I have good backups
from yesterday.

Rene


It won't let me copy, move, rename or delete that directory, so that
sorta stops me for now.

Rene

On 24/06/2019 20.08, Paul wrote:
Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 24/06/2019 19.33, Paul wrote:
Rene Lamontagne wrote:
In C:\ My name used to be "Rene", Now I notice since the clean install
It is "rlamo", How and where can I change it back to "Rene" ?

Windows 10 1903 18362.175

Â*Thanks Rene
Looks like damaged from the usage of an MSA.

I wonder what the recommended "best practice" is for this ?

Because it sucks, and it's happened to me before, and it
screws up file sharing and so on.

I once changed my user name (not a Microsoft account). Perhaps under W7.
I changed it, and it seemed to work: the login changed, the correct name
was displayed... but internally, the filesystem had both names. Linked,
perhaps, I don't remember. A pain in the nameless backside.

But that's not what we're discussing here.

We're discussing "what happens if you select MSA during Win10 install"
and happen to fall for the "recommended" path of using an MSA, versus
a local account. The MSA becomes the "naming convention" for the
home dir, at odds with the rest of your computing room. I recognize
that pattern, and that dir name came from an MSA (characters extracted
from the beginning of the MSA).

I see. I have always avoided MSA, on principle. So you gave me one more
reason :-)

Of course you can mess around, and get yourself into a lot
of trouble by changing (again) the home directory name.
I wouldn't personally recommend this approach to anyone,
because you're swimming upstream when you do that. That's
just asking for trouble.

Yep.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

On 6/24/19 5:28 PM, Rene Lamontagne wrote:
On 2019-06-24 4:01 p.m., Rene Lamontagne wrote:
On 2019-06-24 2:06 p.m., Fokke Nauta wrote:
On 24/06/2019 19:33, Paul wrote:
Rene Lamontagne wrote:
In C:\ My name used to be "Rene", Now I notice since the clean
install It is "rlamo", How and where can I change it back to "Rene" ?

Windows 10 1903 18362.175

Â*Thanks Rene

Looks like damaged from the usage of an MSA.

I wonder what the recommended "best practice" is for this ?

Because it sucks, and it's happened to me before, and it
screws up file sharing and so on.

Â*Â*Â* Paul

I know you can change the user name, but the folder names of the
account won't change. So you can change the user (login) name to
Rene, but your folder name will still be C:\Users\rlamo.
What I would do, is copy all stuff from that directory to an external
drive, remove the account, create a new account under your name, and
copy it all back.

What do you think, Paul?

Fokke


Yes, I did use my MSA when I did the fresh install, It's not a huge
deal but it pee's me off because I hate things that are notÂ* "Just
Right".
If nothing else shows up I will try your suggestion, I have good
backups from yesterday.

Rene


It won't let meÂ* copy, move, rename or delete that directory, so that
sorta stops me for now.

I would expect that.

Rene


You could use your current login and make a new login as rene or Rene,
make it admin and make it a local account.

Copy all the good data from the current account to a USB or external
drive or a generic folder in the \users\default folder etc. This will
void any permission issues and allow the rene account to copy them into
that accounts folders and assume permission.

At least on the surface that seems like a good work around. I guess
you could then purge the MSA account and switch your rene account to the
MSA login.

At least IMHO. (Make an image or two :-)
That or as you say, just do the load over again.

Al

On 24/06/2019 22:27, Big Al wrote:
I've done a few installs and found this out just like Rene did.
It's because you are a known idiot using some crap and hoping that
Windows 10 will behave like your crap. I have never seen or read such
crap like what you've posted here. I do clean installs and they all go
smoothly as I always wanted. I'm the only one who always recommends
people to do clean installs when they can't get upgrades automatically
but there are idiots like you who wants easy life not knowing that clean
install IS in fact easy life.

My current practice is to load Windows and not use the MSA

Yes your current practice is to load Windows just because your next door
neighbour has got a wonderful Windows10 working smoothly and your crap
isn't.

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From: Big Al
Newsgroups: alt.comp.os.windows-10
Subject: User name change
Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2019 17:27:56 -0400
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--
With over 999 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

Rene Lamontagne wrote:

In C:\ My name used to be "Rene", Now I notice since the clean install
It is "rlamo", How and where can I change it back to "Rene" ?

Windows 10 1903 18362.175

Thanks Rene

"In C:\ ..." That's the file system. Are you asking how to rename the
volume label on your C: drive from whatever it is to "Rene"?

Or are you asking to change the name of your %userprofile% folder from
C:\Users\rlamo to C:\Users\Rene? Here's one plan but it is involved and
may not be the fastest and easiest method.

- Create a new Windows account (another user).
* Whether that new account has admin priveleges depends on whether you
want it that way. If your current account has admin privs, the new
account should also.
* Rather than walk through all the wizards, you can go do directly to
where you can add a new account. Press Winkey+R (run dialog), and
run:
control.exe userpasswords2
Click the Add button. You'll load the new-account wizard.
* DO NOT CREATE A NEW MICROSOFT ACCOUNT. That's what got you trapped
into using a Microsoft account for login instead of a local/offline
account like you've used before.
o There are some advantages to using a Microsoft account (you can
search for those online).
o There are also some disadvantages, too, like you cannot create
scheduled events in Task Scheduler that will run when you are not
logged in, because Task Scheduler requires a password for those
but Task Scheduler doesn't know how to handle MS accounts, only
local/offline accounts.
* If you don't care about any of the MS account advantages and want to
use a local account (which Microsoft now likes to call an offline
account to insinuate is a lesser choice than an MS account:
o Make sure you click on "Sign in without a Microsoft account" at
the bottom of the wizard's window.
o Select "Local account" in the next window.
- Microsoft really wants you using a MS account for login, but
that's not what you want. They want the same dependency and
control on their users that Google has on Android phone/tablet
users (and likely the same by Apple for their iOS phone/tablet
users).
* Specify a username for the new account that also matches on the
folder name you want for that account's user profile folder. In
your case, name the new account "Rene". The %userprofile% folder's
name will be the same.
- Log out of your current Windows account.
- Log into the new account.
* This creates that account's profile folder.
* It also adds the necessary registry entries to define that new
account.
- Log out of the new account. You only logged in there to define its
profile.
- Log into the Administrator account.
* You may have to use the tricks noted online on how to unhide the
Administrator account in the login screen, so you can log into it.
* As I recall (and probably still works under Windows 10, the simplest
way is to be logged in under an admin Windows account, open a
command shell (cmd.exe) with admin privileges, and run:
net user administrator /active:yes
* Then logout of that admin-level account and choose the Administrator
account on the login screen.
o If prompted on the first login to Administrator to add a password,
do it.
o If you have never before logged into the Administrator group, its
profile (folder and registry entries) get created.
- While logged in under the Administrator account, copy your old
account's profile atop the new account's profile.
* Load the old System Properties app. Hit Winkey+R to display the Run
dialog, and run:
%windir%\system32\SystemPropertiesAdvanced.exe
* Under the Advanced tab (should be there already), click Settings
under the User Profiles section.
* You may not see the Administrator account list, but that's already
the one under which you are logged into.
* You should see your old and new accounts. You'll see the other
accounts, but not the one under which you are logged into. That's
because you cannot copy a profile that is currently inuse.
o There is a CopyTo button.
o First select your old account (the source from you will copy).
o Click the CopyTo button.
o Browse to the profile folder for the new account, the target of to
where you will copy the old account's profile folder.
- The destination must already exist and why you had to previously
log into the new account to create its profile folder.
- Profiles folders are under C:\Users.
- You want to copy the profile folder C:\users\rlamo atop the
C:\Users\Rene folder.
* You're copying one profile folder of one account atop the
other account's profile folder. This doesn't work by just
using File Explorer to copy one folder atop another.
Permissons won't be correct for the new account's profile
folder and, as I recall, some registry entries will be
incorrect for the account's profile.
- After the profile copy finishes,
- As I recall, there is a Permitted to Use link or button. You have to
use that to add the permissions of your new account onto the
just-copied-over profile folder.
- Reboot Windows.
- Log into your new account. It should look the same as your old
account except maybe for MS-specific stuff may not work, like live
tiles in the Start menu).

You know have the following accounts:
- Default (don't ever logon under that one).
- Your old account (as an MS account).
- Your new local/offline Windows account.
- Your old and new accounts have the same profile content, so they
should be pretty much the same.

I'd keep the old MS account around for awhile. It might come in handy
later. Plus its size on the drive and being quiescent while you're not
using it means it doesn't hurt to leave it around. However, as you
continue to alter your new local/offline profile, it will drift away
from the setup under your old MS account's profile.

Whew, that was so easy, wasn't it (rolls-eyes). That's why I've only
done it maybe twice in 17 years of using Windows. That's why the above
instructions are probably close to the steps needed to copy one profile
atop the other, so your new account looks like your old one, but those
instructions may not be 100% accurate.

It's possible to do the registry edits and folder copying yourself (and
then try to get the SID permissions changed in the new profile to use
the new account's SID instead of the old account SID's permissions).
There might be a shorter and easier process, but I figure it's safer to
do it the Microsoft way.

In Windows 10, you can change an MS account to a local/offline account
but that just changes the purpose of the account, not where is its
%userprofile% folder. I didn't mind writing the above, because I may
have to soon go through that process to create a new local/offline
Windows account to get away from using an MS account. I wanted to test
using an MS account, but it offers nothing that I want and causes
problems with standard procedures, like events in Task Scheduler that
need to run under my account but whether I'm logged or not at the time
the event is scheduled to run.

On 2019-06-24 11:25 p.m., VanguardLH wrote:
Rene Lamontagne wrote:

In C:\ My name used to be "Rene", Now I notice since the clean install
It is "rlamo", How and where can I change it back to "Rene" ?

Windows 10 1903 18362.175

Thanks Rene

"In C:\ ..." That's the file system. Are you asking how to rename the
volume label on your C: drive from whatever it is to "Rene"?

Or are you asking to change the name of your %userprofile% folder from
C:\Users\rlamo to C:\Users\Rene? Here's one plan but it is involved and
may not be the fastest and easiest method.

- Create a new Windows account (another user).
* Whether that new account has admin priveleges depends on whether you
want it that way. If your current account has admin privs, the new
account should also.
* Rather than walk through all the wizards, you can go do directly to
where you can add a new account. Press Winkey+R (run dialog), and
run:
control.exe userpasswords2
Click the Add button. You'll load the new-account wizard.
* DO NOT CREATE A NEW MICROSOFT ACCOUNT. That's what got you trapped
into using a Microsoft account for login instead of a local/offline
account like you've used before.
o There are some advantages to using a Microsoft account (you can
search for those online).
o There are also some disadvantages, too, like you cannot create
scheduled events in Task Scheduler that will run when you are not
logged in, because Task Scheduler requires a password for those
but Task Scheduler doesn't know how to handle MS accounts, only
local/offline accounts.
* If you don't care about any of the MS account advantages and want to
use a local account (which Microsoft now likes to call an offline
account to insinuate is a lesser choice than an MS account:
o Make sure you click on "Sign in without a Microsoft account" at
the bottom of the wizard's window.
o Select "Local account" in the next window.
- Microsoft really wants you using a MS account for login, but
that's not what you want. They want the same dependency and
control on their users that Google has on Android phone/tablet
users (and likely the same by Apple for their iOS phone/tablet
users).
* Specify a username for the new account that also matches on the
folder name you want for that account's user profile folder. In
your case, name the new account "Rene". The %userprofile% folder's
name will be the same.
- Log out of your current Windows account.
- Log into the new account.
* This creates that account's profile folder.
* It also adds the necessary registry entries to define that new
account.
- Log out of the new account. You only logged in there to define its
profile.
- Log into the Administrator account.
* You may have to use the tricks noted online on how to unhide the
Administrator account in the login screen, so you can log into it.
* As I recall (and probably still works under Windows 10, the simplest
way is to be logged in under an admin Windows account, open a
command shell (cmd.exe) with admin privileges, and run:
net user administrator /active:yes
* Then logout of that admin-level account and choose the Administrator
account on the login screen.
o If prompted on the first login to Administrator to add a password,
do it.
o If you have never before logged into the Administrator group, its
profile (folder and registry entries) get created.
- While logged in under the Administrator account, copy your old
account's profile atop the new account's profile.
* Load the old System Properties app. Hit Winkey+R to display the Run
dialog, and run:
%windir%\system32\SystemPropertiesAdvanced.exe
* Under the Advanced tab (should be there already), click Settings
under the User Profiles section.
* You may not see the Administrator account list, but that's already
the one under which you are logged into.
* You should see your old and new accounts. You'll see the other
accounts, but not the one under which you are logged into. That's
because you cannot copy a profile that is currently inuse.
o There is a CopyTo button.
o First select your old account (the source from you will copy).
o Click the CopyTo button.
o Browse to the profile folder for the new account, the target of to
where you will copy the old account's profile folder.
- The destination must already exist and why you had to previously
log into the new account to create its profile folder.
- Profiles folders are under C:\Users.
- You want to copy the profile folder C:\users\rlamo atop the
C:\Users\Rene folder.
* You're copying one profile folder of one account atop the
other account's profile folder. This doesn't work by just
using File Explorer to copy one folder atop another.
Permissons won't be correct for the new account's profile
folder and, as I recall, some registry entries will be
incorrect for the account's profile.
- After the profile copy finishes,
- As I recall, there is a Permitted to Use link or button. You have to
use that to add the permissions of your new account onto the
just-copied-over profile folder.
- Reboot Windows.
- Log into your new account. It should look the same as your old
account except maybe for MS-specific stuff may not work, like live
tiles in the Start menu).

You know have the following accounts:
- Default (don't ever logon under that one).
- Your old account (as an MS account).
- Your new local/offline Windows account.
- Your old and new accounts have the same profile content, so they
should be pretty much the same.

I'd keep the old MS account around for awhile. It might come in handy
later. Plus its size on the drive and being quiescent while you're not
using it means it doesn't hurt to leave it around. However, as you
continue to alter your new local/offline profile, it will drift away
from the setup under your old MS account's profile.

Whew, that was so easy, wasn't it (rolls-eyes). That's why I've only
done it maybe twice in 17 years of using Windows. That's why the above
instructions are probably close to the steps needed to copy one profile
atop the other, so your new account looks like your old one, but those
instructions may not be 100% accurate.

It's possible to do the registry edits and folder copying yourself (and
then try to get the SID permissions changed in the new profile to use
the new account's SID instead of the old account SID's permissions).
There might be a shorter and easier process, but I figure it's safer to
do it the Microsoft way.

In Windows 10, you can change an MS account to a local/offline account
but that just changes the purpose of the account, not where is its
%userprofile% folder. I didn't mind writing the above, because I may
have to soon go through that process to create a new local/offline
Windows account to get away from using an MS account. I wanted to test
using an MS account, but it offers nothing that I want and causes
problems with standard procedures, like events in Task Scheduler that
need to run under my account but whether I'm logged or not at the time
the event is scheduled to run.


Yes something changed my "Rene" directory to "rlamo" and I want to
change it back.
Thanks for all the work you put in to write this up, I am going to print
it out and when I have some free uninterpreted time I will go thru the
procedure. If I mess up no big deal, I have fresh Macrium backups, Will
post back in the next couple days with results. :-)

Thanks, Rene

On 2019-06-25 9:20 a.m., Rene Lamontagne wrote:
On 2019-06-24 11:25 p.m., VanguardLH wrote:
Rene Lamontagne wrote:

In C:\ My name used to be "Rene", Now I notice since the clean install
It is "rlamo", How and where can I change it back to "Rene" ?

Windows 10 1903 18362.175

Â*Â* Thanks Rene

"In C:\ ..."Â* That's the file system.Â* Are you asking how to rename the
volume label on your C: drive from whatever it is to "Rene"?

Or are you asking to change the name of your %userprofile% folder from
C:\Users\rlamo to C:\Users\Rene?Â* Here's one plan but it is involved and
may not be the fastest and easiest method.

- Create a new Windows account (another user).
Â*Â* * Whether that new account has admin priveleges depends on whether you
Â*Â*Â*Â* want it that way.Â* If your current account has admin privs, the new
Â*Â*Â*Â* account should also.
Â*Â* * Rather than walk through all the wizards, you can go do directly to
Â*Â*Â*Â* where you can add a new account.Â* Press Winkey+R (run dialog), and
Â*Â*Â*Â* run:
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* control.exe userpasswords2
Â*Â*Â*Â* Click the Add button.Â* You'll load the new-account wizard.
Â*Â* * DO NOT CREATE A NEW MICROSOFT ACCOUNT.Â* That's what got you trapped
Â*Â*Â*Â* into using a Microsoft account for login instead of a local/offline
Â*Â*Â*Â* account like you've used before.
Â*Â*Â*Â* o There are some advantages to using a Microsoft account (you can
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* search for those online).
Â*Â*Â*Â* o There are also some disadvantages, too, like you cannot create
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* scheduled events in Task Scheduler that will run when you are not
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* logged in, because Task Scheduler requires a password for those
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* but Task Scheduler doesn't know how to handle MS accounts, only
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* local/offline accounts.
Â*Â* * If you don't care about any of the MS account advantages and want to
Â*Â*Â*Â* use a local account (which Microsoft now likes to call an offline
Â*Â*Â*Â* account to insinuate is a lesser choice than an MS account:
Â*Â*Â*Â* o Make sure you click on "Sign in without a Microsoft account" at
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* the bottom of the wizard's window.
Â*Â*Â*Â* o Select "Local account" in the next window.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* - Microsoft really wants you using a MS account for login, but
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* that's not what you want.Â* They want the same dependency and
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* control on their users that Google has on Android phone/tablet
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* users (and likely the same by Apple for their iOS phone/tablet
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* users).
Â*Â* * Specify a username for the new account that also matches on the
Â*Â*Â*Â* folder name you want for that account's user profile folder.Â* In
Â*Â*Â*Â* your case, name the new account "Rene".Â* The %userprofile% folder's
Â*Â*Â*Â* name will be the same.
- Log out of your current Windows account.
- Log into the new account.
Â*Â* * This creates that account's profile folder.
Â*Â* * It also adds the necessary registry entries to define that new
Â*Â*Â*Â* account.
- Log out of the new account.Â* You only logged in there to define its
Â*Â* profile.
- Log into the Administrator account.
Â*Â* * You may have to use the tricks noted online on how to unhide the
Â*Â*Â*Â* Administrator account in the login screen, so you can log into it.
Â*Â* * As I recall (and probably still works under Windows 10, the simplest
Â*Â*Â*Â* way is to be logged in under an admin Windows account, open a
Â*Â*Â*Â* command shell (cmd.exe) with admin privileges, and run:
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* net user administrator /active:yes
Â*Â* * Then logout of that admin-level account and choose the Administrator
Â*Â*Â*Â* account on the login screen.
Â*Â*Â*Â* o If prompted on the first login to Administrator to add a password,
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* do it.
Â*Â*Â*Â* o If you have never before logged into the Administrator group, its
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* profile (folder and registry entries) get created.
- While logged in under the Administrator account, copy your old
Â*Â* account's profile atop the new account's profile.
Â*Â* * Load the old System Properties app.Â* Hit Winkey+R to display the Run
Â*Â*Â*Â* dialog, and run:
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* %windir%\system32\SystemPropertiesAdvanced.exe
Â*Â* * Under the Advanced tab (should be there already), click Settings
Â*Â*Â*Â* under the User Profiles section.
Â*Â* * You may not see the Administrator account list, but that's already
Â*Â*Â*Â* the one under which you are logged into.
Â*Â* * You should see your old and new accounts.Â* You'll see the other
Â*Â*Â*Â* accounts, but not the one under which you are logged into.Â* That's
Â*Â*Â*Â* because you cannot copy a profile that is currently inuse.
Â*Â*Â*Â* o There is a CopyTo button.
Â*Â*Â*Â* o First select your old account (the source from you will copy).
Â*Â*Â*Â* o Click the CopyTo button.
Â*Â*Â*Â* o Browse to the profile folder for the new account, the target of to
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* where you will copy the old account's profile folder.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* - The destination must already exist and why you had to previously
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* log into the new account to create its profile folder.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* - Profiles folders are under C:\Users.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* - You want to copy the profile folder C:\users\rlamo atop the
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* C:\Users\Rene folder.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* * You're copying one profile folder of one account atop the
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* other account's profile folder.Â* This doesn't work by just
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* using File Explorer to copy one folder atop another.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* Permissons won't be correct for the new account's profile
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* folder and, as I recall, some registry entries will be
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* incorrect for the account's profile.
- After the profile copy finishes,
- As I recall, there is a Permitted to Use link or button.Â* You have to
Â*Â* use that to add the permissions of your new account onto the
Â*Â* just-copied-over profile folder.
- Reboot Windows.
- Log into your new account.Â* It should look the same as your old
Â*Â* account except maybe for MS-specific stuff may not work, like live
Â*Â* tiles in the Start menu).

You know have the following accounts:
- Default (don't ever logon under that one).
- Your old account (as an MS account).
- Your new local/offline Windows account.
- Your old and new accounts have the same profile content, so they
Â*Â* should be pretty much the same.
I'd keep the old MS account around for awhile.Â* It might come in handy
later.Â* Plus its size on the drive and being quiescent while you're not
using it means it doesn't hurt to leave it around.Â* However, as you
continue to alter your new local/offline profile, it will drift away
from the setup under your old MS account's profile.

Whew, that was so easy, wasn't it (rolls-eyes).Â* That's why I've only
done it maybe twice in 17 years of using Windows.Â* That's why the above
instructions are probably close to the steps needed to copy one profile
atop the other, so your new account looks like your old one, but those
instructions may not be 100% accurate.

It's possible to do the registry edits and folder copying yourself (and
then try to get the SID permissions changed in the new profile to use
the new account's SID instead of the old account SID's permissions).
There might be a shorter and easier process, but I figure it's safer to
do it the Microsoft way.

In Windows 10, you can change an MS account to a local/offline account
but that just changes the purpose of the account, not where is its
%userprofile% folder.Â* I didn't mind writing the above, because I may
have to soon go through that process to create a new local/offline
Windows account to get away from using an MS account.Â* I wanted to test
using an MS account, but it offers nothing that I want and causes
problems with standard procedures, like events in Task Scheduler that
need to run under my account but whether I'm logged or not at the time
the event is scheduled to run.


Yes something changed my "Rene" directory to "rlamo" and I want to
change it back.
Thanks for all the work you put in to write this up, I am going to print
it out and when I have some free uninterpreted time I will go thru the
procedure. If I mess up no big deal, I have fresh Macrium backups, Will
post back in the next couple days with results. :-)

Thanks, Rene


Great, Got my profile name back to "Rene"
Gotta tell you that is a long process and I screwed up a few times and
had to reload my Macrium backup, But finally this morning I got it right
and it worked.
Thanks again VanguardLH.

Rene