Relocating Users Foldeer

Does the Users folder have to be relocated to an empty drive on an existing win 10 installation, or is any local drive ok?

If you are referring to the method told in this tutorial, the drive or partition used should not contain any Windows system files and folders from any previous install. Other than that it doesn't have to be empty although it is recommended.

Kari

Best not to move Users section; if/when a serious restore or repair or reinstall happens, all of Users section is put right back where Windows OS originally defaults to [sorry for the English - 6am here]. And, some 3rd party installs can be problematic if it doesn't find Users section where Windows normally puts it.

Best not to move Users section; if/when a serious restore or repair or reinstall happens, all of Users section is put right back where Windows OS originally defaults to [sorry for the English - 6am here]. And, some 3rd party installs can be problematic if it doesn't find Users section where Windows normally puts it.

Absolutely not true. I have used the Sysprep method to relocate the complete Users folder in all my Windows installs since the early days of Vista and I have never had any issues, not with Windows updates and repair, not with any third party software.

Thanks Kari

I am not sure if this should be a new thread or not. In following Kari's video instructions on relocating users folder, I am unable to deactivate my user account. It is the only account on the machine and it is the admin account, but when I issue the command "net user Leonard James /active:no, I consistently get the error message "The user name could not be found". I am logged in to the built-in admin account when I issue the command. Any idea why this would happen and how to fix it?

I am not sure if this should be a new thread or not. In following Kari's video instructions on relocating users folder, I am unable to deactivate my user account. It is the only account on the machine and it is the admin account, but when I issue the command "net user Leonard James /active:no, I consistently get the error message "The user name could not be found". I am logged in to the built-in admin account when I issue the command. Any idea why this would happen and how to fix it?

You have a space in your username, Windows does not understand it. As so often in Windows, if a path or name contains spaces it need to be put in quotes.

In your case the correct command syntax would be:

Code:

net user "Leonard James" /active:no

Same again, this time the quotes you need highlighted:

Code:

net user "Leonard James"/active:no

Thank you very much Kari for your response. I finally finished the relocation and things appear to be working well. There is one, I think minor, difference. The C drive still contains a Users folder with an empty Leonard James subfolder. There is a complete Users folder on my F drive. Should I be concerned about the residual folders on C drive?

Your Video is "Par Excellence". I could not have completed the task without it.

Let the empty Users folder stay on C: drive, you can hide it if you want to. It will never be used but it needs to stay there.

Using the Sysprep method in an existing Windows installation to relocate the Users folder always leaves the folder also on C: but it is and remains practically empty. However, it still is a system folder and should not be removed.

For other readers of this thread, here's the full tutorial: Users Folder - Move Location in Windows 10 - Windows 10 blog

Related videos:

Thanks Kari
Your advice has been very helpful.