I have three Win 7 machines in the house and I've recently stoodup a Windows Home Server. On one of the client machines, a Win 7 Home Premium box, I need to change one of the usernames so that it will be consistent with the other machines and the WHS box. Unfortunately I cannot use the Local User Manager MMC snap-in to rename the user. The functionality is blocked on Home Premium. I tried doing remotely but that was also blocked. Is there another way to change a username on Win 7 Home Premium? A command line tool? Registry hack? Or am I out of luck?TIA-Mike

Mike, if you boot to Safe Mode, you can login as Administrator then use User Accounts in Control Panel. Click on Manage Another Account, select the one you want then click on Change Account Name. This will not change the directory structure on the hard drive but it will change he account name. Alternative would be to create a new, throw away Administrator level account then logoff the current one, login with the new one then proceed as above. The key is that you can't change the account name you're logged in as. Delete the new one when done. Rich

Thanks for the reply. I tried that. The Change Account Name function only changes the name that is displayed on the logon page. I need to change the actual username.-Mike

Perhaps do like we did in XP days? Create a new account with the name you need. Copy everything over from the old to the new. Delete the old after suitable testing.Rich

Perhaps do like we did in XP days?Create a new account with the name you need.Copy everything over from the old to the new.Delete the old after suitable testing. If the desire is to change the related folder names as well as to change the displayed user account name then making a new user account and deleting the old one is the only way to achieve that, I'm afraid. That's the case for XP and Vista as well. Changing the user account name does not change the actual names of the related user folders.

I just need to change the username. it's fine with me if the user's home folder maintained the original name. I just really need to change the username.-Mike

I haven't checked as yet, but does Home Premium not allow you to use Control Panel -> User Accounts to change a user account name?If not, you could enable the Administrator account by running an elevated command prompt (right-click and choose 'Run as administrator') and then enabled the inbuilt Administrator account by issuing the command:net user administrator /active:yes Logging in to that account would definitely allow you to make such changes. But I'd have thought that the Control Panel applet would allow you to do what you ask, simply by logging in to a 'normal' Administrator Group account.

You can use the command netplwiz to change the display name and actual username.

I was wondering how do I change the directory structure on the hard drive. When they installed windows 7 onto my computer, they wrote my name wrong and it is driving me insane (I know very silly) so see my name mispelt everywhere. The tech guys I have brought it, just keep on changing the account user name, and one of them said they fixed it, but it is still there under the administrator user name, and obviously it is locked and I cannot edit it directly :S If there is someway to fix this, it would be greatly appreciated! Jonathan

I have the same problem you have and need help as well. When the HP techs put in a new hard drive, they named it TEST so I don,t even get to have my name on my folder list at all. So help me to to understand thisd one... Christina

Click START. in the search box type REGEDIT and go into it. (WARNING: thing in your registry are VERY sensitive!) look for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE click the little plus. click \ SOFTWARE click \click Microsoft \click Windows NT \click CurrentVersion. now look for Registered Owner, double click it. change the name to whatever you desire, then exit the registry.

You can use the command netplwiz to change the display name and actual username. Thanks a million Ispiehler. You're a genius. I was able to do exactly what I needed to do without having to make a new administrator and copy all the old display name folders to the new ones under the new username. Thank you, thank you, thank you!