Reformat the computer, including Windows 10!

geejayare

Hello,
When I originally set up my Acer Aspire 5 laptop in December, Windows only seemed to accept/take the first five letters of my name and thus my route drives are named "garet", not Gareth as I would like.

I've tried the restore Windows function via Acer care centre and Alt+F10 but that doesn't allow you far enough back to edit Windows.
I've also tried a suggested registry edit solution found on a post on the Windows 10 community forums, this didn't work for me.

I emailed support around a month ago asking a similar question, and I spent all day today sitting waiting in a queue of one person on the chat, without response. Obviously I appreciate the times we are in and lack of availability of staff.

Can you suggest anything to help me resolve this please?

Kind regards,
Gareth

JackE

>>>Windows only seemed to accept/take the first five letters of my name and thus my route drives >>>

Do you mean changing drive name from Garet to Gareth in FileExplorer? For that you simply right click on the drive  and rename the drive as an administrator. Jack E/NJ

geejayare

Yes, I've done that. Then you have problems with OneDrive not knowing where your desktop, documents and pictures are so you have to update the registry in Registry Editor. 

However, you can't update everything in Registry editor to the right name, for example NormalizedPaths or Windows Search Crawler Paths.

This means you can't be sure what may go wrong at any point.

Therefore I would still like to get back to the very start if possible.

JackE

Yes, you can return to the very start with a factory ALT+F10 cold boot factory reset or refresh. But that seems like a lot of trouble just to change a simple name syncing issue on a local drive. Instead, I suggest you post your issue on the WinCentral onedrive forum https://forums.windowscentral.com/onedrive/ or better yet use the lost PC folders OneDrive section https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/find-lost-or-missing-files-in-onedrive-0d929e0d-8682-4295-982b-4bd75a3daa01 to re-sync it with your PC. Jack E/NJ

geejayare

I don't use OneDrive anyway (being another annoyance that you can't disable it until after you set up the laptop).

I'm 99% sure I have tried both the restore options, with or without removing files and neither of them let you change your initial folder set up.

UNLESS of course, when I'm telling it my name, Gareth, it is still only accepting the first five characters leaving it as "garet" and making me think that it was never changed?! If I was to choose another name and prove it's only taking the first five characters would this be something that Acer would fix for me?

I will try the complete restore one more time tonight, after backing up my files.

JackE

>>>UNLESS of course, when I'm telling it my name, Gareth, it is still only accepting the first five characters leaving it as "garet" and making me think that it was never changed?! If I was to choose another name and prove it's only taking the first five characters would this be something that Acer would fix for me?>>>

Where are you seeing or did you see it only accepts 5 letters. From FileExplorer? Where else are you seeing garet displayed? On the login screen? If the latter open ControlPanel. Search 'user account'. Click 'change account type' in left pane. Click on 'garet'. Then click on 'change account name' And enter 'gareth'

Jack E/NJ

geejayare

Well, the same thing happened to this guy, and 192 people ticked to say it helped them (you'd have to assume they had other same problem) as well:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-other_settings/how-to-change-username-on-pc-located-in-cusers-in/ed70f119-0dd3-422f-a3f9-6dcff3a2bcad

I followed these instructions, then I had to create a new user to allow me to change my username as you have described above.

I'm not seeing it anywhere anymore, except of in lots of registry locations which, according to Microsoft could cause problems down the line:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/root-folder-update-name-and-registry-references/e226f84a-c6be-4745-b126-3a025a1b6627
"The only safe way to change an account name is to create a new account under that name. All other methods are unapproved and can cause problems."

JackE

Open ControlPanel. Search 'user account'. Click 'change account type' in left pane. Click on 'garet'. Then click on 'change account name' And enter 'gareth' . Jack E/NJ

geejayare

I did the full reset over night and at windows set up I entered my name as Jonathan, but as you can see in the picture it has still called the root file garet since the set up in December.

Is there really not a way to format it completely? I would have thought I need some sort of boot disc   

JackE

Did you Open ControlPanel settings yet? Search 'user account'. Click 'change account type' in left pane. Click on 'garet'. Then click on 'change account name' And enter 'gareth' . Jack E/NJ

geejayare

Yes Jake, I have done the necessary updating. Now as before, garet is hidden everywhere except for in Registry Editor which I guess will do for now.

I'm still not particularly pleased that I know it is wrong, even if I won't see it, hopefully I will just forget about it and not run into any problems.

I hope at least I have proved to you that it is not possible to get far enough back to change it properly.

I appreciate your time and suggestions, thank you.

Gareth

JackE

>>> Now as before, garet is hidden >>>

What do you mean by this? If you changed the name on the login, then that's the new login name. The old name isn't hidden. As with most Windows operations, there may be inconsequential remnants left in the registry but if it bothers you that much run one of the registry cleaner freeware offering like CC cleaner, etc. And, by the way, if you actually did a full ALT+F10 cold boot remove everything ACER factory reset, then that will wipe the drive clean and reformat it to return the machine and system to a factory fresh out of the box condition. If you still saw some references to any personal information you might've entered on the machine when you first acquired, then you did NOT do a full ALT+F10 factory reset. Jack E/NJ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpzLJRAZldA

geejayare

I did it through Acer Care Center, but having gone back now to take a screenshot, I have noticed an extra section around data erasure, over and above cleaning the files. I will try this overnight tonight.

Thank you very much,

Gareth

geejayare

I did it through Acer Care Center. I've just gone through it again, up until the last point and noticed an extra section talking about data erasure, so I will try this overnight again.

It definitely deleted all my files; music, pictures, documents when I did it last night but hopefully this was a missing step.

Thank you very much,

Gareth

geejayare

Last night I did the full data erasure option through care centre and it still had the C-drive as Garet. 

So this morning I shut it down and did Alt + F10 cold boot and chose the second option in the picture above, I know the first one is highlighted in the picture but I defiantly chose the second one, I just took the picture first because as expected as soon as I clicked on it went to the next screen and I couldn’t take another picture.

The second picture shows my correct name, and the third is that the C-drive is still wrong.

i know you think I’m not selecting the right option but can assure you I am.

i don’t have anyway to prove this so where can we go from here? 

geejayare

Interestingly, when I use Windows+R, "netplwiz" to go into the user options to correct my name, it doesn't even have my name incorrectly in the main box, it just list my email as you can see here (I took this picture before I corrected my name via the properties button, where it was listed as garet):

JackE

Any incorrect names after a full erase everything cold boot factory reset probably derives from a wifi network change that was applied subsequent to the reset.  If SystemProtection was turned on in ControlPanel's restore point app, you should be able to see when the change was applied by a restore point listing. Jack E/NJ

geejayare

I connected to my network as part of the Windows installation, are you suggesting that has stored my name incorrectly and is passing it along incorrectly? 

Here are two screenshots, the first showing system protection is on and the second showing two restore points, one which I manually created just before taking this picture and the only other one is for in uninstalling ExpressVPN which I did as part of uninstalling loads of useless programs that come with the laptop.

What next?

JackE

What do you think is still incorrect? If you look at the date stamps, the drive was clearly not wiped clean. If this was done via the ALT+F10 cold boot method, then your hidden ACER factory recovery partition is somehow not working as it should. The dates on the restore points and the folder names should NOT be July 9, 2020.  Jack E/NJ

geejayare

The internal workings of the laptop. The C drive is still called garet, I know I can change its appearance, but it's still not right in the registry. No matter what I do, with assurance, it doesn't correct the issue.

I'd like a solution or Acer to do something about sorting it for me please.

I literally did the reformat-resetting everything, entered my name as Gareth Rees and as soon as it logged into Windows I checked the C drive, which was wrong and my user accounts which didn't have my name either, just my email.

Cheers, Gareth.

JackE

As mentioned earlier, if the ALT+F10 cold boot option to wipe the system partition clean didn't work, then there might be an issue with the hidden ACER factory recovery partition. The datestamps on the folder names and the restore points probably should not still be July 9, 2020. If it was mine, I'd probably try to work with it as is unless issues start to crop up due to the apparent name anomaly. If they do, I'd probably either try a clean generic Win10 install using Microsoft's Media Creation tool at this link ---  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10   ----- OR arrange for warranty service to return the entire drive to it's factory fresh state.  Jack E/NJ