How to change user name in windows 7 professional?

You cannot change a user account by just changing the name. Just changing the name will make a cosmetic change only and not affect the underlying files/folders in the profile.

1. From an account with administrative privileges, go to Control Panel>User Accounts and create the new Standard user account named the way you want and at least one extra Administrator account. Call the latter "CompAdmin" or "Tech" or the like.
2. Log into the new Standard user account once so the profile files/folders are created and then log into CompAdmin.
3. Now go to Control Panel>System>Advanced>User Profiles>Settings
4. You will see where you can copy user accounts. Copy the old account to the new one from there. Use the Browse to select your new account (C:\Users\newaccount).
5. Log into the new correctly named account and make sure all your stuff is there and that it works the way you want. When you are satisfied, you can log out and into CompAdmin and delete the old user account from Control Panel>User Accounts.

If you wish to log into your new, corrected account automatically, do this:

Start Orb>Search box>type: netplwiz [enter]
Click on Continue (or supply an administrator's password) when prompted by UAC

Uncheck the option "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer". Select a user account to automatically log on by clicking on the desired account to highlight it and then hit OK. Enter the correct password for that user account (if there is one) when prompted. Leave it blank if there is no password (null).

General Recommendations for Setting Up User Accounts

You absolutely do not want to have only one user account. Like XP, Vista and all other modern operating systems, Windows 7 is a multi-user operating system with built-in system accounts such as Administrator, Default, All Users, and Guest. These accounts should be left alone as they are part of the operating system structure.

You particularly don't want only one user account with administrative privileges on Windows 7 because the built-in Administrator account (normally only used in emergencies) is disabled by default. If you're running as Administrator for your daily work and that account gets corrupted, things will be Difficult. It isn't impossible to activate the built-in Administrator to rescue things, but it will require third-party tools and working outside the operating system.

The user account that is for your daily work should be a Standard user, with the extra administrative user (call it something like "CompAdmin" or "Tech" or the like) only there for elevation purposes. After you create "CompAdmin", log into it and change your regular user account to Standard. Then log back into your regular account.

If you want to go directly to the Desktop and skip the Welcome Screen with the icons of user accounts, you can do this by following the instructions written in the first part of this post.

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MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!