Logon to an admin account that is not the account being renamed.
Open the Documents and Settings folder, by typing this in Start, Run dialog:
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings
The list of folders will be displayed. Select the corresponding folder of the user account that you want to rename.
Example
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\OldUsername
becomes
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\NewUsername
Next step is to notify the registry that the folder has been renamed (or the Profile Path has been changed)
Changing the ProfileImagePath value in the registry
ProfileList key, SIDs and the ProfileImagePath value
The ProfileList registry key contains some sub-keys, which are nothing but the list of User Account Security Identifiers (SID). Each of the SID represents an Account. The key is located here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ ProfileList
Identify the SID for your User account, and change the Profile path
To know the SID for your user account, you may use the script sidlist.vbs
Download the script and run it. (The User Account names and SIDs will be listed in a log file, and opened automatically.)
Note down the SID for your account.
Then, in the Registry Editor, select the correct SID that belongs to your user account.
In the right-pane, double-click the ProfileImagePath value and set the correct path and folder name. ( The ProfileImagePath stores the full path of the User account home folder. )
Example
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\OldUsername
becomes the following:
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\NewUsername
You're done now. Close Registry Editor, and restart Windows. See if you're able to logon to that user profile successfully. Additionally, to verify if the path has been changed successfully, type SET in the Command Prompt. If you find any abnormal behavior while running an application (in case), you may Undo the above procedure.
or
To create a duplicate of an user profile with a different user name, try this:
Create a new user account
Logon to that account to initialize the newly created profile
Log off from the newly created profile
Login as built-in Administrator
Open Control Panel System applet
Click the Advanced tab
Click Settings under User Profiles
Select a profile to copy from and choose Copy To
Browse to the profile to copy to (C:\Documents and Settings\username)
A new profile is now created which is the duplicate of your user profile.
