How to change the capitalization of the user folder in Windows 10?

Question

My question is very similar to this one; I followed traintes' answer, but had limited success.

My issue is that the user folder Win10 created for me is "C:\Users\tyler" with a lower-case "t", which is quite frustrating to me, especially since it's a proper noun.

In short, the steps given in the other answer involved changing a registry key that specified the user folder path, then changing my Microsoft account's name in User Accounts. At this time, both the key in the registry and the name shown under my account are now "Tyler" with a capital "T", so those steps worked, but the actual user folder is still lower-case.

I know this may not seem like a big deal, but it is to me; I just finished clean installing Win10, so I'd like to fix this before I start installing too many things.

Note: I haven't used superuser before, so I was unable to leave a comment about this on the linked question, sorry!

Answer 1

Try the following:

• Create a second admin user unless you already have one.

• Reboot your machine and login as the second administrator user, do not log in as tyler.

• Press Windows+X and click Command Prompt (Admin)

Now type:

rename "c:\users\tyler" "Tyler"

You don't have to change anything in the registry or elsewhere.

• Sign out and sign in as tyler

This works because tyler and Tyler are considered the same and works in all currently supported versions of Windows.

If you get an Access Denied, first verify the permissions on the folder:

icacls "c:\Users\tyler"

among other things, it should display:

BUILTIN\Administrators:(OI)(CI)(F)

if not, you need to grant permissions first, otherwise make sure you are running as elevated admin:

whoami /groups | findstr /c:" S-1-5-32-544 " | findstr /c:" Enabled group"

This should show somethings, otherwise your account is not elevated.

Answer 2

Warning: Microsoft have now removed lusrmgr.msc for Windows 10 Home users. This answer no longer works for Home users.

In my installation of Windows 10 (version 1511, OS build 10586.36) the currently marked correct answer doesn't work, you still continue to get an error telling you that "Access is denied".

An alternative solution is to run lusrmgr.msc, double click on "Users", right click on the name you want to recapitalise and then select "Rename":

(I really wouldn't recommend changing anything more here than just the capitalisation)

After a reboot, you'll find that you have the correct capitalisation for your login, folder on the desktop and probably a couple of other places.

You won't, however, have the right capitalisation for the homegroup user, the username within the network, the folder in c:\users and probably a number of other places.

Answer 3

Change User Folder name in Windows:

1. Open command prompt with Admin Rights (Win+X -> A)
2. Type net users Administrator /active:yes and hit Enter
3. Reboot your computer. Select Administrator account to login
4. Open Registry Editor (Win+R -> Type regedit and hit Enter)
5. Go to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
6. You will find several folders here like S-1-5-. Search through them till you find a ProfileImagePath pointing to your old username. Double-click on it and replace your old username with your new username
7. Go to C:\Users\ and changed the folder name to what you specified in the registry
8. Open command prompt with Admin Rights (Win+X -> A)
9. Type net users Administrator /active:no and hit Enter
10. Reboot and login to your account

Answer 4

Have you followed every step of my guide? Because you mentioned that you have changed the path in the registry and in the user accounts settings, but you haven't changed that path in the Explorer too (or at least you did not mention it in your question!).

After you have changed the values in the registry and the user account settings, you have to reboot the machine. When you login to Windows the next time, you will be logged in with a temporary profile (because there are obviously missing references at that time!). However, you can now just open the Explorer, go to the Users directory and change the name the folder from tyler to Tyler. Then you have to restart the machine again and everything should work as expected!

PS: You have to change more references in the registry. I have updated my step by step guide a few minutes ago!