When a friend installed a new hard drive on my PC, and reinstalled XP, he misspelled my name as "Lonny", and not "Lonnie" on a Windows System Folder. When I try to rename it I get an error that "Lonny" is a Windows system folder and is required for Windows to operate properly. It cannot be moved or renamed.
Can it be renamed?
Thanks in advance for your help!
If you are talking about the "C:\Documents and Settings\<User Name>" folder you have a few options for dealing with it:
Option A.
1. Reboot to clear open file handles and login with a different account like say Administrator.
2. Rename your account's folder.
3. Update all references to the old folder in the Registry.
4. Open User Accounts and rename the user account.
Option B.
1. Open User Accounts and create a new user with the correct name.
2. Reboot to clear open file handles and login to the new user account.
3. Move files from old user folder to new user folder.
4. Open User Accounts and remove the old account.
5. Delete the old account folder.
Option C.
1. Forget about the folder name and just change the account name in User Accounts in control panel.
On the pros and cons:
1. I think Microsoft only supports options B and C.
2. If you use Option B you lose settings that are stored in the registry. So it's only a good option if you haven't used the account for anything.
I can post more detailed instructions if you want to try Option A or B.
Justin
<< Option C.
1. Forget about the folder name and just change the account name in User Accounts in control panel. >>
I had tried this option and it changed the account name just fine... but, not this, C:\Documents and Settings\<User Name>, still had the old User Name :(
Option B looks promising and it appears like it might be the easiest way to accomplish this. I can try it this evening, unless someone posts up another suggestion/thought.
EDIT: Oops, I just re-read your pros/cons: I've been using the PC with this set up for a few years now. So it sounds like it might not be a viable option.
Thanks for all the replies :)
Unfortunately it appears that Option A is the only way to do what you want.
I have done it myself with Vista Ultimate.
To do this option you will have to edit the registry key that contains the path to the user profile folder and probably have to download some extra software to handle updates to other keys that third party applications use.
If you are ok with editing registry keys and dealing with problems that may arise from doing so I will post more info on doing this.
Justin
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