# Computer Password question (not in sticky) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 27, 2005, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-password-question-not-in-sticky/287010 "2005-01-27T23:40:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ILMS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecb155/32.png) [@ILMS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ILMS)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-password-question-not-in-sticky/287010/41 "2005-02-02T04:02:23Z")
Trying to fight my own ignorance, I did some poking around. It seems that the user command only works on servers. Could that be the problem? Well, if not, there must be a way to add a user to a regular old laptop. I don;t want to hook up to any servers. Just the internet and me (and my files of course). so, is there any way to add a user to a laptop? :smack: :smack: :smack: I’ve done that so many times at home… somehow it felt better to do it in my post. Good news is I have my file access, so I can work a bit, but I’m fearful of turning the machine off, so I’m one power outage from who knows what. ---
**Author:** ![Aestivalis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Aestivalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aestivalis)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-password-question-not-in-sticky/287010/42 "2005-02-02T04:11:55Z")
Don’t worry about anything. There’s only one thing you did wrong, and that was leaving out the space between the password and /add. Since you scrunched it all together, it tried to change the password on the user account ILMS to “ILMS/add”. Had you put the space in, you would have created an account ILMS with the password ILMS. If you type in NET USER /? you can get a feel for the syntax of the command. ---
**Author:** ![ILMS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecb155/32.png) [@ILMS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ILMS)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-password-question-not-in-sticky/287010/43 "2005-02-02T05:10:50Z")
I tried that too and got the same error. In fact, I had the blank in and I had the syntax wrong, I typed net user ilms ilms / add error! The option / is unknown. I’ll try it again, trying different syntax spaces. I copied your first example first, and that kicked back the original error. Thanks for getting back to me. It doesn’t sound like it’s as bad as I thought. ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Joe\_Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Random)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-password-question-not-in-sticky/287010/44 "2005-02-02T05:16:12Z")
> [@ILMS](#): > > I tried that too and got the same error. In fact, I had the blank in and I had the syntax wrong, > > I typed > > net user ilms ilms / add > > error! > > The option / is unknown. You almost had it. Put a space in front of the forward-slash, but no space between the slash and “add”. ---
**Author:** ![ILMS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecb155/32.png) [@ILMS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ILMS)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-password-question-not-in-sticky/287010/45 "2005-02-02T18:07:42Z")
Thank you! All that for a space in syntax. I’ve added a user successfully. I’ll let you all know how this goes after I add myself back. :smack: :smack: I could have sworn I tried that command with the spacing correctly at least one of those times. ---
**Author:** ![ILMS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecb155/32.png) [@ILMS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ILMS)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-password-question-not-in-sticky/287010/46 "2005-02-02T21:47:59Z")
New questions below in _italics_. OK, to recap where I am. I can now make the new user accounts. Under C:\Documents and Settings, I can still see my old account ILMS, with all of the files I need under that folder. I made a copy of that folder just to make sure I don’t hose something up. I followed these directions that you’ve listed below. I find my original user profile (ILMS) select it, click Copy To, click Browse, Go under C:\Documents and settings\ I see the new account name I set up. I select it. I click OK and it copies the contents over. **Problem**. \*When I log back into the machine as that user, I am not getting my old environment. I keep getting the new Administrator environment. Obviously I’m missing something here. Does it have anything to do with permissions? My old account did not have administration privilages, so I thought maybe that could be causing a problem. Is there something else I am missing copying over to make sure that I’ve captured EVERYTHING, including my old look and feel. (not to mention my files).\* Thanks. I haven’t been able to get further from here. ---
**Author:** ![Aestivalis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Aestivalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aestivalis)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-password-question-not-in-sticky/287010/47 "2005-02-02T23:16:27Z")
Go back to the Profiles page, and make sure the size of the two profiles are the same. If you overwrote your old files with your new files, that’s a BAD thing. But you said you could tell which one was the old one and which one was the new one. If you log in as the new account, can you see your old files under My Documents? ---
**Author:** ![ILMS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecb155/32.png) [@ILMS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ILMS)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-password-question-not-in-sticky/287010/48 "2005-02-03T02:37:50Z")
Went back to the profiles page, and the size of the two profiles are exactly the same. What I meant when I made a copy of my files, I just copied the ILMS file folder into some other folder (I think it is Copy of ILMS). Anyway, I did that just to make sure those files are accessible no matter what might happen to the ILMS file folder. When I log in as the new account, I don’t see my old files under My Documents. Another drive shows up there, which I believe could have been a network drive? Since this computer is no longer on a network it wouldn’t exist. I can redefine it, but I’m not too concerned about any files I may have had under My Documents. I never saved anything to My Documents. I always threw it in a file folder on my C drive, under Desktop, so everything that’s important to me is on my C drive. I think we are close… I certainly didn’t have any problems logging into this computer before all of this happened, and I was never connected to a network. One thing I did notice. When I went to the User Profile page, I noticed two things 1. There were a number of undefined users out there, small in size but still floating out there. 2. Any new users I made were part of two groups. Administrators; Users Any of this help? Thanks, ILMS ---
**Author:** ![Aestivalis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Aestivalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aestivalis)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-password-question-not-in-sticky/287010/49 "2005-02-03T06:42:10Z")
Hmm, you’ll have to use the profiles page to copy the contents of your old profile to your new one. Are you sure you copied the files previously, or did you move them? If you just dragged the folder, you might have moved the files. You might just need to recreate your settings. But you have all your documents, right? ---
**Author:** ![ILMS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecb155/32.png) [@ILMS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ILMS)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-password-question-not-in-sticky/287010/50 "2005-02-03T08:08:44Z")
I do have all of my documents. How do I use the profiles page to copy the contents of my old profile to my new one? I’m positive I copied the files, but I’ll make sure before I do anything. It was a standard copy and paste, and it took 20 minutes or so, and there is no shortcut icon (as I mentioned, my paranoia level is up significantly). I can’t afford to lose some of these files, so I’m doing my best (including backing things to disk) to make sure. Obviously, I haven’t been able to look through them all, but I’m comfortable with the fact I have most if not all of the files I need before this started. But, back to the question. How do I copy my old profile and recreate my settings? Thanks as always, ILMS ---
**Author:** ![Aestivalis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Aestivalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aestivalis)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-password-question-not-in-sticky/287010/51 "2005-02-03T13:11:41Z")
Start back at Post #37 > [@Aestivalis](#): > > If you’ve already created a new account to use, this is what you should do. > > Verify that you can log in under the new account, then log out. > Log in as Administrator. > Right-click on My Computer and choose Properties. > Click on the Advanced tab, then under User Profiles, choose Settings. > Find the profile that you used to use (it may say something like DOMAIN\ILMS). > Click Copy To. > Click Browse. > Go under C:\Documents and Settings > You should see the name of the new account that you set up. If it was the same name as the old account, you might see it as ILMS.001, or something like that. > Click OK, and it should copy the contents over. > > Log back in as the new account you created, and all your files should be there. > > Once you’ve accomplished that, you’ll want to remove it from the domain that it’s a member of. > > Right-click on My Computer and choose Properties. > Click the Computer Name tab, then choose Change. > Click the radio button to make it a member of a workgroup, instead of a domain. Call it WORKGROUP, or MSHOME, or whatever. > Click OK, then OK, and then you’ll have to reboot. > After that, you’ll either boot directly into your desktop (if you didn’t put a password on your new account) or you’ll be able to click on your name, then enter a password to get onto your machine. > > As always, let us know how it works. ---
**Author:** ![ILMS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecb155/32.png) [@ILMS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ILMS)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-password-question-not-in-sticky/287010/52 "2005-02-03T17:47:27Z")
I’ve parsed your post #37 many times now. Here is where I get to. \*\*. . . . Click OK, and it should copy the contents over. Log back in as the new account you created, and all your files should be there.\*\* When I log back in, the files aren’t there. Again, I just get the profile of the administrator. **Once you’ve accomplished that, you’ll want to remove it from the domain that it’s a member of.** I’ve never been able to get to this step in your post. ---
**Author:** ![Aestivalis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Aestivalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aestivalis)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-password-question-not-in-sticky/287010/53 "2005-02-04T02:10:35Z")
OK, I’m not sure why the settings have not carried over, but you’re probably better off recreating your settings. If you’re happy with that, then remove your computer from the domain. ---
**Author:** ![ILMS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecb155/32.png) [@ILMS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ILMS)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-password-question-not-in-sticky/287010/54 "2005-02-04T23:05:47Z")
**Aestivalis** When you say “recreate my settings”, are you talking about manually copying over my files? I can give that a go. I’ll probably need a clue on removing my computer from the domain, but I’ll let you know how it’s going. There are a couple of other weird thing happening that I’d like to ask. Can I change my computer name from ILMS to anything else without hosing everything else? When I create a new user name, say xxxx, the user name created is ILMS-xxxx. Not on the user menu, but in the file directory. Before this whole thing happened, my domain name was never attached to any user name. Thanks again, ILMS ---
**Author:** ![Aestivalis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Aestivalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aestivalis)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-password-question-not-in-sticky/287010/55 "2005-02-05T04:10:11Z")
Yes, you may have to manually copy your files. Do you mean the name of your computer (what we call a machine account) or the name of the user account on the computer? You won’t be able to change the name of your computer (properly) until you remove it from the domain. Follow the directions I gave earlier (2nd part of post #37). The laptop, in order to prevent two accounts from sharing the same profile, will create new directories with something (-xxxx) at the end. If you want your directory to be named something specific, you’ll either have to hack the registry, or delete all the profiles and recreate your account. Probably not worth it if you don’t know what you’re doing. ---
**Author:** ![ILMS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecb155/32.png) [@ILMS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ILMS)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2005, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-password-question-not-in-sticky/287010/56 "2005-02-13T04:14:33Z")
**Aestivalis** , you said, > [@](#): > > The laptop, in order to prevent two accounts from sharing the same profile, will create new directories with something (-xxxx) at the end. If you want your directory to be named something specific, you’ll either have to hack the registry, or delete all the profiles and recreate your account. Probably not worth it if you don’t know what you’re doing. You mean it took you all of this time to realize I didn’t know what I was doing? 😉 No worries. You are correct. However, I got pretty far sitting here fumbling through the best I could. And I have most things working. I can’t believe going away for a few days pushed this post to oblivion. I will work on this tomorrow and keep you posted. Cheers (almost ready for a beer) ILMS ---
**Author:** ![ILMS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecb155/32.png) [@ILMS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ILMS)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-password-question-not-in-sticky/287010/57 "2005-02-22T14:13:10Z")
Hi All, Sorry I’ve been away. It’s almost not worth looking through 14 pages of general questions to find my original inquiry. :smack: However, here’s what I did. I created an account, **Aestivalis** , on my machine. There are two new directories created under the user directory, one called **Aestivalis** , and one called **Aestivalis.USEP-T98776** ( **USEP-T98776** is the computer name). Under the directory **Aestivalis.USEP-T98776** , the directories Cookies, Desktop, Favorites, My Documents, No Sync, Start Menu and NtUser.dat appear. Under the directory **Aestivalis** , the directories Cookies, Desktop, Favorites, My Documents, No Sync, Start Menu and NtUser.dat appear, however nothing is ever created here. When I sign in, I sign in as **Aestivalis** , however any files created go to **Aestivalis.USEP-T98776**. I hope this makes sense. I have resorted to copying the files I need under the longer directory, and they look like they are created in the right spots, and are accessible, but something about when I add a user just doesn’t seem right. ---
**Author:** ![Aestivalis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Aestivalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aestivalis)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-password-question-not-in-sticky/287010/58 "2005-02-22T14:30:48Z")
Continue using the longer foldername. It’s an odd artifact of how the profiles are set up. However, it seems like you haven’t removed the machine from the domain yet. Once you do that, and then create yet another account, it should operate properly. Give it a shot. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-password-question-not-in-sticky/287010.md?page=2)