How to rename user account?

[AlexRD]

So for some reason, windows 8 thought it would be funny to change my user name to Al Ex instead of Alex, AND since you can't have space on the address bar, the folder ended up calling Al.
This annoyed me a lot more than it should have, because i have tried changing the user name through control panel, but that just changes the display name, not the folder's name.

How do i rename it?

 

[Brink]

Hello Alex,

The best way I found to do this would be to create a new account with the name you wanted instead, sign out of old account, sign in to the new account, copy over anything (ex: shortcuts and files) you wanted from the old account to the new one, then delete the old account.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Vadikan]

I totally agree with creating a new user account, but there's a more efficient way than copying everything over. It's called Windows Easy Transfer (migwiz), and it lets you transfer not only files and program settings, but also your user preferences (see red frame in the attached image). The latter is worth doing even if you decide to move files manually.

Tip. Before running migwiz, enable hidden files in File Explorer. Then migwiz will display hidden folders that may be useful for transferring program settings (see 1-2-3 in the attached image).

migwiz is a powerful tool, but it gets overlooked way too often.

 

[AlexRD]

I think i'll just get used to being called Al. It's safer that way

 

[Vadikan]

There's nothing unsafe about creating a new account and transferring files/settings to it. If you are ready to get used to Al, I don't really understand why you asked the question in the first place.

 

[Brink]

Alex,

It's completely safe to create a new administrator account for yourself, and copy over what you wanted from the old account.

To be safer, wait a while before deleting your old account to make sure that you didn't forget to copy anything wanted over to the new one.

 

[Vadikan]

Good point, Shawn. That's exactly what I recommended my good friend a year ago when I used migwiz remotely to transfer her files/settings for the same reason.

Yesterday I was helping her with something else and she mentioned she was kind of low on the disk space. Sure enough, she hasn't removed the personal files from the old profile. She didn't need them, but they were sitting there