How To Change Windows 10 Account Username

While using your Windows 10 computer, you might want to change your local or Microsoft account’s username and password.

Changing your local or Microsoft account username and password is quite easy in Windows 10. Since we have already covered changing Microsoft account password and local account password, in this guide, we will talk only renaming or changing the account username.

As you might have discovered by now, the Settings app doesn’t offer an option to rename the account username in Windows 10. Luckily, the classic Control Panel includes an option to change or rename user account usernames in Windows 10.

NOTE 1: This method applies to both local user accounts and Microsoft accounts used to sign in to Windows 10.

NOTE 2: You must be the administrator or sign in to an admin account to rename or change the username of an account.

IMPORTANT: You might get “No mapping between account names and security IDs was done” error message while trying to open files with modern apps (not classic desktop apps) post renaming user account usernames. The error seems to be showing only for Microsoft account and not for local user accounts. If you get the error, we suggest you restart your computer once and then restore your computer to an earlier date. Some users have also reported that modern apps fail to launch after renaming user account username.

Complete the given below instructions to rename or change the user account name in Windows 10.

Change local or Microsoft account username in Windows 10

IMPORTANT: We recommend you create a restore point before changing the username as you might get the error mentioned above after changing the username. In that case, you can restore your PC using the restore point.

Step 1: Type netplwiz in the Start/taskbar search box and then hit the Enter key to open the User Accounts dialog. Alternatively, you can also use the Run command box to launch the User Accounts dialog.

Step 2: Here, select the user account name that you want to rename and then click on the Properties button.

If the Properties button is grayed out, select the Users must enter a username and password to use this computer option. The Properties button should be clickable now.

Step 3: In the resulting dialog, type a new username and full name for the user account that you want to rename. You can also type a description for the account (optional), but it does not show up anywhere.

Once done, click on the Apply button. Click the OK button to exit. That’s it! You have just renamed a user account in Windows 10.

How to sign out of Microsoft account in Windows 10 guide might also interest you.