Rename Default Username in Windows 11

I recently got a new machine which came with Windows 11 pre-installed. On the first boot, it asked me to login with my Microsoft account (I think that's the only way to login to Windows now).

Now, I have been using Windows since 2005 so I anyways log in to recover my system state. However, one weird thing I noticed after it booted up was that my username was not what I wanted. It was a short hand of my name (something I have seen companies do when assigning username to employees).

Unsure of how Windows set this username, I started to search for ways to rename it to something I wanted. There were lot of posts and videos I watched which all assumed I had a local account but that was not the case. Since I had logged in with my Microsoft account, I couldn't manage this as a local account.

After lot of searching I was eventually able to update the username. Below are the steps I followed:

NOTE: If you are doing this, ensure that you do it before installing any software otherwise you might face issues.

1. Rename the User Folder:
   1. Open a terminal as administrator and run net user Administrator /active:yes.
   2. Logout from the current user account and login as Administrator which should be visible after running the above command.
   3. Open Explorer and go to C:\Users\ and rename the folder with your username. If you see an error that the folder is in use, ensure that you sign-out from that account.
2. Update the registry:
   1. Open regedit (Registry Editor) by typing regedit in the Run dialog (Win + R).
   2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList.
   3. Find the subkey corresponding to your user account. Look for the ProfileImagePath value and change it to reflect the new folder name (e.g., C:\Users\NewUsername).
3. Restart your system.
4. Disable administrator account by running net user Administrator /active:no.

Following these commands will rename your user account. Some apps might be broken if they depend on the username.

It might take some time for Windows Spotlight to fix the lock screen wallpaper.

Hope this helps someone or me in the future!! 😊