Account folder moved to "Administrator.000"?

Question

Before the Anniversary Update (which I only installed recently), Win 10 Pro 64 had one main account (mine) :

• Its name was Administrator (it was the built-in admin account)
• Its full name was different (lets say it was "Full_Name")
• This account had (obviously) Admin rights
• Its Win 10 User folder was "C:\Users\Administrator"

And I was very happy with this.

Since applying the Anniversary update a few days ago, Win 10 has changed my User folder to "C:\Users\Administrator.000" and created a new/different "C:\Users\Administrator". I didn't noticed anything special at first since everything appeared fine (desktop icons etc appeared like normal, everything had been silently moved and set up). Privileges are still fine, etc.

But browsing through the Users folder I noticed this change. It's not a big deal in and of itself but for the sake of cleanliness I would like to return the situation to normal, ie :

• have my user account be the built-in Admin account again ; and thus also...
• having my User folder be "C:\Users\Administrator" once again (with everything moved back and correctly detected/set in there) and not have this "Administrator.000" be my user account folder anymore

How can I proceed ?

Solution

I had this problem as well. For me, in my original C:\Users\Username folder one folder remaining in it, Index. When opening this folder in Explorer I was presented with the well-known dialog asking me to grant permission to this folder. I reverted to the previous Windows 10 version, 1709, and then I moved the search index to a different directory, removing C:\Users\Username\Index. I tried the update to 1803 again and now my user directory was not renamed to C:\Users\Username.000.

I suggest that you check if the deepest subfolders of the folders that remain in your original user folder are accessible. If not, you may have the same problem that I had. Revert to the previous version, fix the access problems, and try the update again.

When reverting to a previous Windows version, I advise you to make a USB recovery drive because for me reverting lead to a broken Windows installation once.

Comments

[Admin]

It sounds like you may have encountered problems because the default, built-in admin account for managing a Windows 10 workstation is also called Administrator, although it is typically disabled. It that the one you were using, or did you somehow create another account by the same name?

[Admin]

@Run5k : yes, it was the one I was using. I clarified this in the OP.

[Admin]

Thank you for the clarification. When a Windows 10 major feature update is released (1511 or 1607, so far), it is essentially like an in-place operating system upgrade. Because Administrator is a built-in account instead of a user-created login, it basically gets recreated each time instead of migrated. The operating system is appending .000 on the profile to differentiate it from the Administrator account within the "new" OS. If you don't mind me asking, why are you utilizing the built-in account? That is normally discouraged for security purposes, and it also can't run "metro apps."

[Admin]

@Run5k. Mainly for convenience. I'm the only user on the PC and I'm allergic to just not being able to do random stuff easily on the rare occasions I need to. I'm not into deactivating absolutely everyhting I could, but I definitely need ways to significantly reduce Windows refusing to do what I'm telling it to (back in Win 7 days, the first thing I ever did was turning my account into the superadmin). I also have no interest in metro apps.

[Admin]

Those are all valid points, but on my Windows 10 machines I utilize a local login with full admin privileges and a different account name, so the problem you described never occurs. It's a matter of personal preference, but if you do the same and also modify your UAC settings to one of the two lower options, you will probably achieve essentially the same results while avoiding this problem.

[Admin]

I had almost the same problem BUT my account name was distante. Now I have a distante.000 and it disturbs my work with command line tools (npm ,git, etc)

[0xC0000022L]

valuable info, especially w.r.t. the Index. You realize, though, that this is likely a variation on what I outlined already in my answer. Just saying, because you commented on the another answer by me.

[kmdreko]

just to add, this happened to me but the user wasn't Administrator and the "problem" folder was stuff in AppData and not Index, but clearing that, reverting and re-updating fixed it for me

[CSharpie]

This worked for me, but i had to simultaneously rename the folder in c:\users accordingly

[0xC0000022L]

@CSharpie depends what the goal is. If the goal is to reestablish access to the previously used profile path by the name C:\Users\Administrator, the registry change should suffice. But depending on what it is you want, both may be needed, true.