Renaming User Folder in "Documents and Settings" X

[Intimidator]

This is what I would like to do. When I bought this laptop and went through the XP setup I put in a user "JohnDoe"

I would like to change "JohnDoe" to "JaneDoe" without reinstalling XP. I think I have to rename the SID (security identifier).

I went to the control panel and changed the user name from JohnDoe to "new name". But this does not change the user ID folder under documents and settings. That folder still says "JohnDoe".

I know there has to be a way to do this. After some research I found psgetsid. There is also something called NewSid but I am not sure how to use it. Or there may be a easier way to do this.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

[dodecahedron]

why not simply create a new user account with the new name and then delete the old user account?

[Intimidator]

I am not sure if that will work? Is that the same thing that I want to do?

I cannot find any detailed info regarding this issue.

I found this link:

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm? ... 514&page=1

Does this technique work that same as you suggested?

Thanks!

[margrave]

Yes, take dodecahedron's advice. That folder is the user profile folder, if you try to rename the existing folder you'll corrupt the profile and won't be able to log on again. When you create a new user it will automatically create the profile folder...

[dodecahedron]

i'm not sure it will do what you want, 'cause i'm not sure what you want!
but from your description in your first post, it seems to me that that's what you want.

why don't you just try?
create a new user account with the new name. the corresponding folder in Documents and Settings will have the new name.
if everything is OK just copy the data over
(which may be problematic. some applications save data in subfolders of the Documents and Settings...thing might be broken. you might have to reinstall those applicatios, i dunno. maybe just running them will fix things - they'll create the new datafiles they need, but any settings/histories you may have might be lost. copying the files manually might work but then again might not.)
then delete the old user account!
(which BTW you can't do from Control Panel -> User Accounts. you have to go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Local Users and Gropus)

if thigs don't work out, just remove the new account.

(BTW i've done this once: creating a new account, copying over the data files and also application files, worked OK for me).

as for the tip in that link...tried that psgetsid but didn't work ... i'm not familiar with DOS ...
anyway i would only try it after backing up all the data of the user's account.

[pranav81]

Follow dodecahedron's advice.Create a new account called "JaneDoe" and delete the other account.



::Pranav::