Deleting and Renaming User Accounts

KevAquarius · Jan 24, 2009

Hey all,

I have recently created a new user account on my Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit OS because I had problems with my CPU Usage firing up to 100. Anyways, I made this new account and kept some of the files from my old account. My problem is that the old account is still showing up in the Computer>OS(C

>Users folder, and when I try to delete it it says I need permission. I tried the "Taking Ownership" tutorial and that didn't help because it still said I needed permission to delete it. I also tried to go to Properties>Security and give myself (the only admin on my computer) complete rights to delete/rename/etc. No such luck there either. So I guess my two questions are:

1) Can I delete my old user account files and how?
2) Can I rename this new account so that it doesn't show up as OldName_2 in the file directory?

Thanks for all your help,

Kev

Brink · Jan 24, 2009

Hello Kev, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Yes, once you delete the old user account from User Accounts, you can safely delete it from C:\Users\(user name).

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/93026-user-account-delete.html

The only way to rename the C:\Users\(user name) folder is to create a new user account with a different name than the old one. If you want the same name as the old one, then it will require to create one dummy one to be able to work in, delete the old one, create another new one with the name you wanted, then delete the dummy one.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

KevAquarius · Jan 25, 2009

Thanks Shawn, I'll definitely give that a try. I deleted my previous account and kept the files because there was some music I wanted. Now I want that gone from the C:, how do I make that happen as well?

Brink · Jan 26, 2009

Kev,

You can just delete the C:\Users\(old user name) folder from within your new account when your ready to since it has already been deleted from User Accounts in the Control Panel.

Frank-here · Feb 9, 2009

Hello Brink,
When a User account is deleted , What goes with it?
Are any file folders deleted? or is it just the passsward and setup info that exits?

I wish to do this as I have no need for a 2nd user account that came over when I ported from XP to Vista ( that was a pain , but I digress).

That is, is deleting a User a 'forgiving' action? I see file folders under the user name. I assume these folders would be deleted?

please advise when you have a moment.

regards,

Brink · Feb 9, 2009

Hello Frank,

When deleting the user account as described in this tutorial, it will delete that user account completely from the computer along with it's C:\Users\(user name) folders and content.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Frank-here · Feb 9, 2009

thanks Brink.
I think this will only cause me more grief if I do this... I am trying to get to one account ( I never had 2 accounts on XP). I do not know what will be affected, so best to leave it alone for now until I can see the 'damage report' before executing this.

Brink · Feb 9, 2009

Frank,

That may be best if your not confortable doing it.

When deleting a user account the programs will not be uninstalled though. As long as you have another administrator account to log on to afterwards and to delete the other account with, you should be fine.

Deleting and Renaming User Accounts

KevAquarius

New Member

My Computer

System One

Brink

My Computers

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KevAquarius

New Member

My Computer

System One

Brink

My Computers

System One System Two

Frank-here

New Member

My Computer

System One

Brink

My Computers

System One System Two

Frank-here

New Member

My Computer

System One

Brink

My Computers

System One System Two