When you create a user account in Windows 10, it is automatically assigned a name. Some people prefer to be able to choose their own name. Here we will show you how to personalize the name of your user folder.
The user folder associated with a user account in Windows 10 is automatically named when the account is created. This folder comes in C:\Users to stand. The folder has the same name as the account that was created. If you created an account using an email address associated with a Microsoft account, the user folder will have the first five letters of the email address as its name.
If you change the name of your account afterwards in the control panel (Control Panel > User Accounts > Change Your Account Name), this has no effect on the name of the user folder. This is because Windows and other installed software would not recognize the new path, leading to all kinds of problems.
However, there is a trick you can use to be able to choose the name of your user folder yourself, so that you don't have to have the default name Windows assigns to it based on your username. For this you have to create a new account and afterwards transfer the files from your old account, if you already had a user account.
Create a new local account
The trick is to start with a local account. That way, Windows uses the full account name as the name for the user folder. When you have finished creating the profile, you can convert the account to a Microsoft account.
Log in with an account that has administrator rights and go to Settings > Accounts > Family & other people. click on Add someone else to this PC.
You can now create a local account by clicking I do not have this person's login details clicking and Add user without a Microsoft account to choose.
Give the account a local username that exactly matches the name you want to assign to the user folder. If you add a space, the folder name will also contain a space. Choose a password and create the account.
Change account type
You can now log out and log in again with your new local account. Then go to Settings > Accounts > Your info and choose Sign in with a Microsoft account instead.
When you're done with this, your user folder will still have the name you chose for the local account, but your user account will now have the name of your Microsoft account.
Transfer settings
If you already had a user account, you can now manually transfer the files and settings from your old user account to the new account. Then you can delete the old account.
In previous versions of Windows this was possible automatically with Easy Transfer, but unfortunately this option is no longer available in Windows 10. You can, however, use third-party software, such as Transwiz. This free software is available in different languages, so if you use Windows 10 in Dutch, that's no problem.
