This guide will show you how to change the default location of your user profile. If you recently bought a new SSD with a low ammount of disk space, this could save you quite a few GB. The only requirement is that the new drive is an internal drive and NOT a USB-connected.
Warning 1:
Some installed programs might not work properly after the profile has been moved since information might be saved in the “AppData” folder located in your profile. These “links” will not be updated, so you might need to reinstall them again.
Warning 2:
Allways do a complete backup before moving the profile. Misstakes done during the move of the profile might end with a corrupt profile and/or Windows installation.
Step 1:
Start with loging on with the user account that you wan’t to move and open a Windows Explorer. Browse to the folder “C:Users” and right click on the profile you wan’t to move.
Select “Share with” -> “Specific people” and add the group “Everyone”.
Give the newely added group both read and write rights.
Step 2:
Log off.
Step 3:
Log on with an administrater account, not with the account that you are moving.
Note: If you don’t have another account, follow this guide to create a new administrator account.
Step 4:
In Windows Explorer, browse to “C:Users”.
Right click on the folder of the account you are moving and click on “Copy”.
Note: Clicking on move could ressult in a corrupt profile in case all files are not moved successfully.
Step 5:
In Windows Explorer, browse to the drive where you would like to place the profile. (Example “E:”) Right click on an empty space and click on “Paste”.
Note: This should be another internal hard drive, not a USB-connected.
Step 6:
If prompted to provide administrator permissions, click on “Continue”
Step 7:
When the copy has completed, close the Windows Explorer and open “regedit” by clicking on the start menu and typing “regedit”.
Step 8:
In regedit, browse to the following location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionProfileList
Step 9:
Under the folder “ProfileList”, you will have a few fodlers starting with S-1-5.
Click on each one of these untill you find the one that belongs to the profile you wan’t to move. (This can be seen by looking at the ProfileImagePath in the right pane)
Step 10:
Right click on the value called ProfileImagePath and click on “Modify”.
Type the full path to the new location, for example: “E:User1”
Step 11:
Click on “OK” and close regedit.
To verify that the profile has been moved successfully.
Step 1:
Log in with the user account that was moved.
Step 2:
Open the start menu and click on the username to open the profile folder.
Step 3:
Right click on one of the folders, for example “Desktop” and click on “Properties”.
If the move was successfull, you should see the new location, for example “E:User1”
To delete the old profile folder
Step 1:
Log on to the computer with a account that has administrative rights.
Step 2:
Right click on the old folder, Example C:Usersuser1″, and click on “Delete”.
Step 3:
If prompted by UAC, click on yes.
Step 4:
If prompted, click on “Continue” (See screenshot)
Step 5:
You can now empty the recycle bin to completely remove the old profile.
