I have been asked this question many times on this blog – ‘How to rename a local user account from command line?’ Well, net user command supports most of the user account related operations that we can do from Control Panel-> User accounts in GUI. It supports password reset, locking or unlocking user accounts, adding users to groups etc. One thing the GUI supports and net user command does not support is renaming user accounts. Still, there is a way to do that from windows command line. We need to use WMIC Useraccount command for doing this.
Below is the command for renaming a local user account on a computer.
wmic useraccount where name='currentname' rename newname
Example: To rename the user account ‘xpuser’ as ‘win7user’ we can run the below command.
wmic useraccount where name='xpuser' rename win7user
Using this command we can rename administrator account also. The below command changes the user name from ‘administrator’ to ‘admin.’
wmic useraccount where name='administrator' rename admin
The above wmic commands work on XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7 and Server 2008. On Vista and Windows 7, you need to run the commands from elevated command prompt.
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tnx
it say that wmic is not recognized as internal or external command
Same I'm getting the same thing
Love this, thanks much... The gui would not perm change the uname, this worked like 'magic'. PS: not real email, but sentiment is legit!
Thanks Steve for the comment. Appreciation like this keeps us going.
PS: no problem with the email id.
Can not figure out how to change name. Help. Thank you
I recently renamed my user account, but the command prompt still shows my old name under , what gives?
This is perfect! Thanks so much. Had never heard of this command before. Had to use it to change the guest account name in Windows 8.1 (non-pro) before activating the account for the first time. Only other way to change the guest account name is to activate it and change in the user accounts panel, but then certain elements of the account still refer to "Guest". I then used "net users" to verify the change.
Win8 Elevated Command Prompt: StartKey+X or Right click Start button, click on "Command Prompt (Admin)"
Not working. It says "Prashant-Invalid alias verb".
Make sure the syntax is correct.
I unfortunately either deleted the only administrator account I had in my Control Panel, or inadvertently changed it incorrectly. I tried every one of your suggestions, and none of them worked. I'm still hoping you can get an administrator for me for Users in the Control Panel, please. Thank You
Thank you for the wonderful post.
it really helped me out with my problem.
Thanks again,
Thank u very much~