Change User Name in windows 11

Question

Hello there,
I used windows 10; a few days back, I upgraded to windows 11. I noticed that my user name changed after logging in to my Microsoft account.

I tried different methods of changing the local account name available on the internet; however, it did not help. How can I change it? I have attached screenshots of usernames.

I really appreciate any help you can provide.

Answer 1

Hi Mesbah Shovon

I am Dave, I will help you with this.

From your screenshot, is it the name on your user folder in the C:\users folder that you want to change, is that correct?

Windows 10/11 will by default name the user folder with the first 5 characters of your name, that is the default and Microsoft strongly advise you do no change the name on that folder, because that can cause serious consequences later and some people have been unable to access their account after doing that.

If you do still want to change the name on your folder, at your own risk, here are the steps:

https://www.elevenforum.com/t/change-name-of-us...

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Answer 2

Dave,

If changing the folder name is so fraught with danger then the user really ought to be given a choice of folder (and user) name rather than defaulting to the first five characters of the email name. It's not even the full email name!

Answer 3

I think I may have found a solution to this, though I've not tested it sufficiently enough to see if there are any "gotchas".

First, for clarity, let us note that there are three places where the "User Name" shows up, each w/ its own identity and behavior.

1. The user-name. This is the computer-oriented name for the account, "Mesbah" in the example above. This can be changed by several methods, as you found.
2. The user-display-name. This is the human-oriented name for the account/user, "Mesbah Shovon" in the example above. For an account linked to a Microsoft Account, this is taken from the linked account. You change this in the online Microsoft Account.
3. The user-directory-name. This is the name used for the user's home/profile in C:\Users, "mesba" in the example above. This is the one that gets truncated from the email address of the linked Microsoft Account and the one that is perilous to attempt to change.

What I found that seems to work is the following:

1. In Settings/Accounts/Other Users, create a new local administrator account with the name desired for user-directory-name. (Cf. Create a local user...) This account will have the user-directory-name as desired.
2. Exit the account w/ the undesired user-directory-name and log into the new, correctly named account.
3. Delete the old account. (If you've already used it for a bit, make sure you copy or preserve any files/etc you want to keep.)
4. Now in Settings/Accounts tie the new account to your Microsoft Account. (This cannot be done if you have not deleted the old account, as it will tell you that the MS Account is already linked to an account on this computer.)

See if this is useful. As I said, I've not tested it enough to see if there are any difficulties w/ this approach.

Answer 4

This is not an option for users of Windows 11 Home Single Language as it doesn't support local accounts. The alternative of using Registry Editor is not safe.