When setting up Windows 7 I was asked to enter a user name for my account. I managed to press the RETURN key too soon when typing this name and now I cannot find a way to change the name. How can I fix this error?

Changing the name of your user account is a relatively easy process. Go to the “Start” menu > “Control Panel” and click “Add or remove user accounts”. The next window should present the user accounts found on your computer. Click your (incorrectly named) account to show the account properties. The first option in the account settings should be “Change the account name”. Click this option and then type the new name of your user account. Now this new name will appear on the Windows 7 startup screen and in the Start menu.

However, you may have noticed that the name of your user profile directory on the computer has not changed. So, the C:\Users\ directory will still be listed with your old user name. Changing the name of your user profile directory is a significant pain, as we need to change various references to the profile directory and should a mistake be made, then it will prevent your user account from working properly. The easiest way to fix this problem is to create a new user account with the correct name, which in turn will create a new profile directory with the same (correct) name. Ensure that you grant this new user Administrator rights on the computer, so that they have the same amount of access as your old account. Now in your old account, use the Windows Easy Transfer wizard to save the data from your current user profile to a particular location. You can find the Windows Easy Transfer wizard by typing the name into the Search box on the Start menu. Once the transfer has completed, use the Windows Easy Transfer wizard to migrate the data back into this new account.

In theory, you now do not need the old user profile anymore. However, I would hold off deleting that account for the moment and keep that around for a few weeks, just in case there is any data which was not migrated by the Windows Easy Transfer wizard.