Moving User Accounts

I would like to ONLY move my user account and I've read the article, "An
error message informs you that you cannot move or rename the Documents and
Settings folder" at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314843/en-us. Does the
procedure of updating the path in the ProfileImagePath sub-key under the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
registry key automatically update all the other registry keys that also use
my profiles path? If not, is this solely so Windows knows where my profile
is during logon? If so, do I have to update all references to my profiles
path in the registry, even though the article only mentions doing so for a
"Documents and Settings" folder move? If I have to update these keys too,
will I still possibly encounter any other problems or settings that are
unadjustable? Also, Step 3 says to, "Log on to the computer as the user,
type SET at a command prompt, and then verify that the path has changed."
This is confusing because if the path hadn't changed properly, how would it
be possible to logon as the user to verify it? Thanks.

I'm still hoping someone might help with my question. I'd appreciate anyone
taking a look at this. I need to know if changing the ProfileImagePath is
all you need to do in order to successfully move a user account folder. Will
I still need to update any keys that reference the old path, or will they be
updated by Windows after I perform the above procedure? This is something
you have to do for a "Documents and Settings" folder move, but do I have to
update the keys if I am only moving a profile folder? And why do I need to
verify the ProfileImagePath in CmdPrompt? If it is incorrect, wouldn't I
know, because I would be unable to logon as that user? Thank-you!

"Skippybox" wrote:

> I would like to ONLY move my user account and I've read the article, "An
> error message informs you that you cannot move or rename the Documents and
> Settings folder" at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314843/en-us. Does the
> procedure of updating the path in the ProfileImagePath sub-key under the
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
> registry key automatically update all the other registry keys that also use
> my profiles path? If not, is this solely so Windows knows where my profile
> is during logon? If so, do I have to update all references to my profiles
> path in the registry, even though the article only mentions doing so for a
> "Documents and Settings" folder move? If I have to update these keys too,
> will I still possibly encounter any other problems or settings that are
> unadjustable? Also, Step 3 says to, "Log on to the computer as the user,
> type SET at a command prompt, and then verify that the path has changed."
> This is confusing because if the path hadn't changed properly, how would it
> be possible to logon as the user to verify it? Thanks.

Skippybox <Skippybox@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote on Wed, 9 Jul
2008:

>I'm still hoping someone might help with my question. I'd appreciate anyone
>taking a look at this. I need to know if changing the ProfileImagePath is
>all you need to do in order to successfully move a user account folder. Will
>I still need to update any keys that reference the old path, or will they be
>updated by Windows after I perform the above procedure? This is something
>you have to do for a "Documents and Settings" folder move, but do I have to
>update the keys if I am only moving a profile folder? And why do I need to
>verify the ProfileImagePath in CmdPrompt? If it is incorrect, wouldn't I
>know, because I would be unable to logon as that user? Thank-you!

Hi Skippybox

It may be all you need to do. . . it depends on whether any of your
programs might have written registry entries with absolute or hard-coded
references to the old profile location. If so, you might get some
misbehaviour from those particular programs and perhaps need to
re-install them.

MVP Ramesh has a page about this that you might find helpful:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/userpath.htm

Good luck! Let us know how it goes :-)
--
Nightowl