Solved Changing your account name in File Explorer

[Stan Schultz]

Long story short - In an effort to dual boot Windows 8.1 and Kubuntu 20.04 on a relatively unsophisticated ACER Aspire E17, I managed somehow to get the name on my account folder different from the name that I use for all my file permissions and a lot more (I'm gradually accumulating a list) - basically anything the computer needs to confirm my identity for.

Using File Explorer (or whatever name Windows is using this afternoon), if I wind my way through the folder hierarchy to my account listing (i.e., "This PC" > C: > Users) I am listed merely as "Stan."

However, if I look at my formal account thus: Control Panel > User Accounts, I am very clearly listed as Stanley A. Schultz. Same guy. Two personas! And I want you to know that having such a split personality is a real drag!

Referring to that last, Control Panel page, there is a link for changing my identity there. But I don't want to change my identity there. I want to change my identity in the File Explorer listing, i.e., in the file system. But the system won't let me touch it.

How do I carry this off without losing two weeks of my precious time (I'm 76, and only have so many breaths yet to take. I'm getting a little protective of what I have left!) of installing and (mis)configuring the OS, then installing and configuring I-don't-know-how-many programs and apps. Because I hit <Enter> a millisecond too soon, or the machine hiccuped at precisely the wrong moment. Bummer!

Any help or suggestions, people?

 

[Brink]

Hello Stan,

You can use the same method in the tutorial below to change the name of your user profile folder in Windows 8.

Change Name of User Profile Folder in Windows 10

 

[Stan Schultz]

Yay! Thank you Brink. Your suggestions worked like a charm! I no longer have visions of the grim reaper standing behind me, looking over my shoulder, nervously checking his watch, impatiently waiting for me to reinstall the whole blamed operating system and it's aps!

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome.