How to Change Your Account Name on Windows 10

There are many reasons for changing the account name on Windows 10. For example, you have recently changed your name and want to show the right information. You use a local account and enjoy your full name instead of the nickname displayed. Or perhaps because you consider a privacy threat and want to make your experience more private, you would like to update your account name.

For whatever reason you are changing it, shockingly, changing the Windows 10 account name is not an easy job exactly. It can be done, but before you go there, you have to look at a few crucial things.

In this Windows 10 article, we’ll take you through the different ways to change the name of the account that appears on the Local or Microsoft account sign-in screen.

Change Account Name Using Control Panel on Windows

Find and open the classic Control Panel. One way to do this is to press Windows + R and then type Control then hit Enter.

2. Under the “User Accounts” section, click the Change account type option.

3. Click the account you want to edit.

4. Click Change the account name.

5. Confirm the new account name as you want it to appear in the Sign-in screen.

6. Click the Change Name button.

After you complete the steps, sign-out, and the sign-in screen will now show the new name.

Change Account Name with Netplwiz

You can also use the legacy account management tool (netplwiz) to complete the same task.

To update the name of your account with netplwiz, use these steps:

Press Windows key + R, type: netplwiz or control userpasswords2 then hit Enter.
Click the Users tab.
Please select the account to change its name.
Click the Properties button.

(Optional) Update the “User name” field to change the account nickname.
Select the General tab and confirm the new account name in the “Full Name” field.

Quick Tips: If you want to display a nickname instead of your real name, you can leave the “Full Name” field empty.

Click the Apply button.
Click the OK button.
Click the OK button again.

After the steps are done, sign-out and sign-in screens will show the name stated in the field “Full- Name.”

You can also edit Microsoft-linked accounts using these instructions, but cloud settings would easily overwrite the files. As a result, these measures apply to local accounts only.

How to Change User Folder Name

It is pretty basic to change usernames, but the change does not occur in the user folder on drive C. It can be unsafe to rename — it can be safer to stick with it or merely create a new user account and then copy the data into the new account. Yes, it’s uncomfortable but better than getting a corrupt user profile.

There is an advanced option available to you if you need to change it to hush the OCD. This allows you to use the command line to access the security identifier (SID) and then make the required registry changes. Before continuing, activate logging in to your built-in admin account. Establish a restore point in advance as a precaution.

For accessing all the information inside the SID, it is important to show the value to be identified and updated within the registry using the Windows Management Instrument command-line. Open the command prompt with Administrator privileges, type: wmic user account list full then hit Enter. Scroll down and then take note of the SID values for the account you want to change.

Type: cls to clear the screen.

The next step is to rename the account. Doing this from the command line is just as easy.

Type CD c:\users then hit Enter.

Type: rename OldAccountName NewAccountName

For example, rename “Angry Dah Cosof” “Angela Brown”

Open Start, type: regedit

Right-click Regedit.

Click Run as administrator.

Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

Remember that SID value we accessed earlier? Now is the time to reference it.

Once you find the value ProfileImagePath, double-click it. You can see that there is still the old name we had earlier. Adjust your name to the latest one you choose to use.

There you have it, the name you actually intended. Mistakes like this can happen, but there is always a way to fix it.

Change account name with Computer Management

Use these methods to use a different name on your Windows 10 account using Computer Management:

Open Start.
Search for Computer Management and click the top result to open the console.
Expand the System Tools branch.
Double-click the Local Users and Groups branch.
Click on Users.
Right-click the account and select the Properties option.

Quick tip: You can use the Rename option to change the profile nickname.

7. In the “Full name” field, confirm a new account name.

8. Click the Apply button.

9. Click the OK button.

After you complete the steps, the next time you sign in to your account, the Sign-in screen will show the local account’s new name.

Changing Account Name via Microsoft Account

If you are logging in to your Windows 10 with your Microsoft account, then the displayed name is the username of your account. To change the name, go to your Microsoft account and change your Windows account settings.

You can change your Microsoft account name by logging in and editing the account details in the Settings menu.

Open Accounts overview menu on your Windows Settings’ first page. Click the link available below your username and email ID. This link will lead you to your Microsoft account’s login page. Access to an active internet connection is essential to complete this process, so ensure that you are connected to an active and stable internet connection while changing your Microsoft account name.

Follow the below-mentioned steps to change your Windows 10 user account name using your Microsoft account:

Log in to your Microsoft account (that is connected to your Windows 10 account) by clicking the Sign In option in the middle of the Microsoft website’s homepage or clicking the Sign In icon in the top-left corner of the homepage. Now enter your Microsoft account ID and password, and sign in.
After logging in successfully, click on the three dots next to your username in the top options bar.
From the three dots’ drop-down menu, select Your info to start modifying your Microsoft user profile.
You’ll find all of your details on the Your Info page. Select Edit Name next to your Full Name.
Next, enter your new preferred first and last name, the captcha code, and hit Save.
Once done, log out of your Microsoft account and log in again to check and confirm whether your Microsoft account name has changed or not. It usually takes a while for Microsoft to process your new name and implement it across all your linked devices and accounts.

Note

Remember that changing your Windows 10 username would probably not affect the user directory’s name. Why? Because the user directory was created at the time your user account was created; therefore, it won’t change even if you change the Windows 10 username. In addition, making any manual changes to the user directory can trigger issues.

So, the only way to change the user directory’s name is to sign up for a new user account. Ensure that your new user account has the correct name. After creating a new user account, you can transfer all of your data to your new account.

Also, remember that changing your Microsoft account name is not only connected to your Windows 10 account, but it is also connected with other Microsoft services, including MS Office, email, and other Microsoft applications. So, changing your Microsoft username will also change your email account name, so think twice and take precautions before changing your Microsoft account username.