Friday, January 23, 2015

Completely remove user account and create another with same name in Windows 7

Here's my question simply and then the details in case they help to get me an appropriate answer.




Question: How can I completely and permanently delete a user account in Windows 7 so that I can create another one with the same user name without the computer name extension added, eg Jane Smith not Jane Smith.computer name?



The details: I just did a clean install of Windows 7 Professional 32 bit. (My laptop crashed, I reinstalled Vista and restored backup files but things weren't working so I decided to just get Windows 7 since I had to start over anyway).



I used Windows Easy Transfer to save just about everything, even customizing to include a user's appdata from Windows.old which was created when I reinstalled Vista -- not knowing that another windows.old file would be created with the installation of Windows 7. After installing Windows 7, I used Windows Easy Transfer to transfer the user file, appdata, to the new user account which I gave the same name (Jane Smith) in case having a different name would cause problems with reading files or something.



Afterwards, I realized that I did not want ALL of that junk. So, I thought no problem, I'll just delete the user account I just created, nothing lost, and create another one this time transferring only the files I wanted (using the customize option in windows easy transfer).



I wanted to keep the same user name, e.g. Jane Smith, so after I deleted the user account I checked the files, and I didn't see. It was late so I went to bed and the next morning I created a new user with that same name (Jane Smith). The files looked fine if I remember correctly.




Meanwhile, I updated the computer and it restarted a couple times. As I was moving files to the "Jane Smith" user account file, things weren't working as they should. I was actually moving files to the deleted user account and that the current user account was named "Jane Smith.computer name" and that's where the files needed to go.



I don't like this. It's too confusing. I want just "Jane Smith". How can I do this without just changing the user name (which doesn't change it in the file path etc)? I want the first one GONE.



If I can't do this, is it a problem to create an account with another name and still transfer files to it without path or other problems?



I hope this question makes sense and that someone can help me.



Thank you in advance!

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