Rename a local user account

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

Administrators is the minimum group membership required to complete this procedure. Review the details in "Additional considerations" in this topic.

To rename a local user account

1. Open Computer Management.

2. In the console tree, click Users.

   Where?

   • Computer Management\System Tools\Local Users and Groups\Users

3. Right-click the user account that you want to rename, and then click Rename.

4. Type the new user name, and then press ENTER.

Additional considerations

• To perform this procedure, you must provide credentials for the Administrator account on the local computer (if you are prompted), or you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer.

• Because it retains its security identifier (SID), a renamed user account retains all its other properties, such as its description, password, group memberships, user profile, account information, and any assigned permissions and user rights.

• A user name cannot be identical to any other user name or group name of the computer that is being administered. A user name can contain up to 20 uppercase characters or lowercase characters, except for the following:

  " / \ [ ] : ; | = , + * ? < > @

  A user name cannot consist solely of periods (.) or spaces.

Additional references

Local user accounts

Assign a logon script to a local user account

Assign a home folder to a local user account