Need help renaming or recreating Domain Account

[Steve Krause]

Question from Reader - Email Form

 

 

Hi Mr Groove

 

Can you please advise me how to rename or recreate an domain account on Windiows Vista.

i have tried rename the existing profile to .old but i get an Access denied error although i am logged in as an administrator.

I have tried to delete the profile from the registry and then delete it from the c:\documents and settings but it does not work.

[Steve Krause]

Hi Martin,

 

I need some help understanding your question before I can give you a solid answer. You mention you want to Rename or recreate a Domain account on Windows Vista however you need to understand that if this is a Domain Account (AKA - Active Directory Account) then the account is not actually managed at the local Install of Vista. Even if you log into Vista as a LOCAL admin, you will not have ability to modify the Domain Account.

 

Logged into Vista a LOCAL admin you should be able to Delete the Local Profile of the account however this will only remove the profile from the Local Vista box.

 

Remember - Domain accounts are not managed on local workstations. They are managed and stored on the Domain Controllers in the Active Directory. When you log into a Vista machine with a Domain Account, the profile is created and some files cached in order to allow you to login and save profile settings. The actual account however is still managed on the domain controllers.

 

So if you want to Rename the Account you will either need to have your IT department do it OR, you personally will need to have the permissions to do so inside your Active Directory Domain.

 

What issue are you trying to solve which makes you want to rename your Domain account or re-create it?

[alexmvp]

Don't forget, the profiles for Vista are not stored in c:\documents and settings anymore. They are in c:\Users

 

You should be able to go into Profiles on Vista and delete them by:

 

Click Start Button

Right Click Computer and Click properties

Click Advanced System Settings on the Left Side

On the Advanced Tab, Click Settings under User Profiles

Click the Profile you want to delete and Click Delete.

 

Like MrGroove says, that will just delete the local profile data for Domain or Local Accounts. Not the account itself. This will also not rename an account. To rename a Domain Account, you need Domain Rights and Management Tools. For local accounts, just click Start button, Type User Accounts. This should take you to the User Menus for Vista LOCAL accounts only.

 

Hope that helps!