How to Rename User Account in Windows 10 & 11

Don’t like the current user account name? You can change it. Follow these steps to change or rename the user account in Windows 10 and 11.

While installing Windows 10 or 11, you are prompted to create a username for your account (not applicable for online accounts). The same user name is used as the name of the user account. For most, this is perfectly fine. However, what if you don’t like the user account name? Well, you can rename the user account in Windows.

Most create a new user account and delete the old user account to change the user account name.

There is no need to do it that way. Windows has built-in options to rename a user account. If you ever need, follow the below steps to rename the user account in Windows.

Table of contents:

• Control panel method
• lusrmgr.msc tool method

Steps to Rename User Account from Control Panel

Though Windows 10 and 11 are slowly migrating towards the PC Settings app, many things still need to be done via the good old Control Panel. One such thing is renaming the user account.

Important note: This method doesn’t work for online accounts.

1. Open the start menu.
2. Search for “Control Panel” and open it.
   
3. Set “View by” as “Category” and click the “User Accounts” link on the Control Panel page.
   
4. Click “Manage another account.”
5. Now, click on the user account you want to change the name.
   
6. Click on the “Change the account name” link.
   
7. Now, enter a new user account name in the blank field.
8. Press the “Change Name” button.
   
9. To make the changes take effect, you should reboot Windows. So, right-click on the start menu and select the “Shut down or sign out -> Restart” option.
10. After restarting, you will see the new user name in all places, including the lock screen.
    

Use lusrmgr.msc to rename the Windows user account

Windows 10 and 11 have a nifty tool called lusrmgr.msc to rename the user account name. If the above method did not work or you are looking for an alternate way to rename a Windows user account, you can use the Local Users and Groups Manager, a.k.a lusrmgr.msc tool. The good thing is, compared to the control panel, this method is pretty straightforward and takes fewer steps.

1. Open the Run dialog box with Win + R shortcut.
2. Type lusrmgr.msc in the blank field and press the “Ok” button.
   
3. The above action will open the Local Users and Group manager. Go to the “Users” folder and find your user account.
   
4. Right-click on your user account and select “Rename.”
   
5. Type the new user name and press Enter.
   
6. Close lusrmgr.msc tool.
7. Reboot Windows to make changes take effect.
8. Once you reboot, you will see the new user name everywhere, including the lock screen and the start menu.
   

That is it. As you can see, it is nothing complicated to rename user accounts in Windows 10 and 11.

Remember that even though you’ve changed the user name, the user profile folder still has the old name.

For instance, I’ve changed my user name from WindowsLoop to WindowsLoopCOM. However, the user profile folder C:\Users still has the old name. i.e., WindowsLoop. To change that, follow this guide on how to change the user folder name in Windows 10. Since you’ve already changed the user name, you can ignore the second section of that guide.

If you like this article, check out 50 useful Windows 10 keyboard shortcuts and how to change Windows 10 computer name.