How To Change User Name Windows 11

Copper Contributor

To change the username in Windows 11, follow these steps:

 

  1. Click on the Start button and select the Settings icon (gear icon) from the left-hand side menu.

  2. In the Settings menu, select "Accounts."

  3. From the "Accounts" menu, select "Your info" from the left-hand side menu.

  4. Click on the "Manage my Microsoft Account" link. This will open your Microsoft account page in your web browser.

  5. Sign in to your Microsoft account if prompted.

  6. Click on the "More actions" button (three dots) located at the top right corner of the page.

  7. Select "Edit Profile" from the drop-down menu.

  8. On the "Edit profile" page, click on the "Edit name" button.

  9. Enter your desired new username in the "First name" and "Last name" fields.

  10. Click the "Save" button to confirm your new username.

  11. Wait for a few minutes, and the new username will automatically sync with your Windows 11 device.

That's it! Your Windows 11 username has now been changed.

19 Replies
Thanks for sharing, will be helpful to others!

@rahulkhorwal Why cant i enter only first name and change it. 

By having first name and second name, Oracle is not taking the username with space while installing

@rahulkhorwalThis worked to change my account username, but didn't change my computer username. Is there anything else I can try?

@rahulkhorwal 

My Username on the Windows Website has not changed, however, since I got a new computer, it is no longer displayed correctly (last letter missing). I don't know what to do.

@rahulkhorwal The advice given in this thread does not fix my problem. Windows 11 decided to automatically name my user folder "pluvi" based on the first 5 letters of my truncated email. Seriously? You are going to force me to use this weird random string because that makes it easy for you to create a unique name for user folders without bothering to ask users what we prefer? Why don't you just use something even more human-unfriendly like a GUID or a Welsh place name? 

Please tell us how to rename our User folder to something less human unfriendly.

This is quick helpful! thanks for sharing the tip.

As others have said, these instructions do not work for simply changing the computer username and the user's folder on the desired PC. 

 

I have a new Windows 11 computer, and want my username and user folder to be the same username I use on all my computers "fubar1". However the name my Microsoft account is under is "Jon Doe". Windows created my user folder as "jondo". WHY is there no way to control my username / user folder? This is really really frustrating. I can control my username on older Windows versions and in Linux. Microsoft is really frustrating a lot of people by not letting them have control over something as simple as their username. Please provide an EASY way to do this that works. Even if the instructions you provided did work (they do not, and moreover they don't even match the menus that show up in Windows 11) we should not have to go through such a long and convoluted process. Too many steps. That do not work. Please fix. 

+1

@rahulkhorwal 

 

I just wanted the local user name changed, not some mental syncing madness.

 

Control Panel > User Accounts > Change your/the account name

Just wasted most of my lunch break with this.

Android authority's first result did it in 30 seconds. Why ?

Control Panel > User Accounts, ensure your profile is selected, and choose Change your/the account name.

Forget anything else.
Microsoft's one size fits all direction, forcing everyone to do it their way, just sucks.
I am actually so relieved yet frustrated with how simple this process actually was but that it took me almost 2 hours to find it. Thank you, lol!
I am trying to add Microsoft account, but the login pop up window is struck on while screen forever. Is there a way to fix this?
Use windows + r then type netplwiz it'll take time to sync up the name after this.
netplwiz use this on windows + r.
Yes, I agree.
This is a great tutorial, thanks
Can I change the user name of another account when logging in as the administrator? I can only find the option to change password not the name.