Fully relocating Users tree in Windows 11

Hello!

I'm wondering if @Kari's guide on relocating the Users tree is still effective in the latest versions of Windows 11. There was a post from a little over two years ago, referencing this tutorial:

Move Users Folder Location in Windows 10

Before I get my hopes up, and with how rapidly it seems that Microsoft changes the rules, I'm hoping some here have successfully done this more recently. I'm also specifically wondering if "Method 2" is still effective. Has Method 2 always been completely effective when it works? I understand there is a chance it can break the system (hence the warning about creating a backup prior to attempting). But if it works, are there any downsides to this method versus Method 1? Or does Method 2 work just as well, with no drawbacks or side effects compared to Method 1?

Thanks!

Yes it is.
I have moved C:\users (SSD) to D:\Users (HDD) on my desktop and laptop, both were moved during Win 11 installation.

While I feel sure the tutorial still works in 11, though you did not ask my opinion about doing it, I'm giving it anyway.

I never move the entire C:\USERS folder to another drive. I don't even move an entire user account to another drive.(I would come near moving a user account than I would the USERS folder) Instead I move only the personal folders within an individual user account such as C:\Users\username\pictures (or downloads, music, etc) I Do NOT move appdata. By doing it this way, if my secondary data drive fails, I'm not completely blocked out of Windows and I can still activate my hidden administrator account if necessary. You can't do that if the entire USERS folder is moved and that secondary drive fails. If the system drive fails, you can't get into windows anyway so no harm no foul.

If your goal in doing this is to free up space on your system drive, you might consider this. This is the tutorial for moving the documents folder. The tutorials for moving all other user folders are at the bottom.

Move or Restore Default Location of Documents Folder in Windows 11 Tutorial

The reasons I have moved C:\users (SSD) to D:\Users (HDD) on my desktop and laptop are simple, and involve cost and strategic.
- Brazil has the highest taxes in the Americas. A 1T SSD that cost in US US$ 60 can cost here more than US$ 180
- In 2011 when I bought a new computer to install Win 7 64 bits (old one was Win XP) a SATA SSD was costing US$ 1.00 per GB. The 120G cost me US$120. Two 500G WD black that I set as RAID 0 cost me US$108.
- On the 120G SSD I've installed Win 7 64 (on 80G partition) and Linux Lubuntu (on a 40G partition).
- The D:\Users (HDD) had all my data and it was also used for Linux.
- Also, as a SSD degrades when data is erased and re written, having temp files, virtual memory and all kind of cache on the HDD saves the SSD health
- All temporary files (Windows\temp and \Users\Luiz\AppData\Local\Temp) were moved to D:\System\temp.
- \Users\Luiz\AppData\ has all user configurations. Being on the HDD allow to reinstall Windows on the SSD and have ALL the user configuration back and intact.

- My nephew gave me, two years ago, a 4 gen i7 Intel Asus laptop. As it had ODD, I replaced it with a HDD caddy and installed a 120G SSD. With US$25 I have now the speed of a SSD and the space of a HDD at very low cost.

Three friends brought to me their quite new laptops with HDD, with a M.2 slot but without the NVMe drive. I've installed a 250G NVMe drive, did a Win 11 clean install moving C:\users (SSD) to D:\Users (HDD). Again, cost was a huge factor.

Regarding if the secondary data drive fails, I always have a drive image backup and have on my desktop a third drive (SSD) with Win 7 totally functional (MS office and all programs). I also have a 4th HDD with Win 7 that has my backup programs (registered Macrium Reflect and ViceVersa Pro ). I just have to press F12 during POST to launch the boot menu, select a my Win 7 drive and in less than 1/2 minute I have a full operational OS with all my data on the backup drive.

Thanks for the replies. I guess at the moment I am determined to at least try out this setup with moving the entire Users tree, though I may change my mind quickly and revert back. I like the idea of being able to clean install Windows and have the Users tree untouched and in tact. Maybe that's flawed thinking.

More on that later, but at the moment I have to leave for a few hours and Windows is stuck at the region/keyboard layout/sign-in screen. So I think the process completed successfully, but for some reason I cannot get on with making the temporary "dummy" local account. I have run the command prompt and oobe\bypassnro like I did on initial install, but for some reason this time it's not allowing me to create a local account. bypassnro runs successfully, then Windows install does some more things in the background, then I'm right back to the same screen again. I tried it a few times with the same result. Any ideas?

The relocate files. This files may be a little different from the tutorial but has been instructed by Kari years ago
The files has a TXT sulfix to protect accidental launches. Remove the .txt when files are in place and ready to execute.
- You enter audit mode during installation pressing Ctrl+Shift+F3
- Audit.cmd is to enter audit mode from running Windows (after installation)
- Relocate.xml is the script (instructions) to the move. Has to be placed on D:\
- Sysprep.cmd is to begin the move
- SSD are instructions to fine tune after Windows installation and Users on D:

Hm, so I followed the original post to the letter, and it seemed like it ran the sysprep just fine. Are these other instructions (about the SSDs and audit etc.) new for Windows 11? It seems odd that I cannot log in with a local account after running sysprep. I believe the move was already done, but now I just need to create the dummy account to get to the desktop and then delete it. It just won't allow me to create a local account to get there.

EDIT: I should add for clarification that I'm using Method 2 because Windows was already installed and set up for use. I learned about this possibility about a day too late. My schedule won't allow another clean reinstall, especially with any potential complications. I'll have to try that perhaps in November or December when I have time again. If I can't get this to take, I'll just revert back to my system restore and move only specific folders as I've done in the past.

If you did Method 2 you had to create a new account. The original account (that you were using before entering audit mode) is still there. If it was a local account it still is.
Log off the new account, log in with the old account and delete the new account.

I did a system restore, and looking at the target drive, I see that the Users folder was in fact moved there. The only oddity was that there was an normal, hidden appdata folder and another nonhidden appdata0 folder. They appeared to have identical contents. I'm assuming I could have just deleted appdata0 and gone about my day, other than the fact that I couldn't boot into Windows.

So I'm wondering if the key is to use the other unattended answer file per @Megahertz or if there's something else not executing correctly.

So I can either just leave it now back in the original state and move discreet User folders like Documents, Pictures, etc., or try again. But with the added steps for SSD fine tuning and other unknowns, I'm not sure I'm up for it with the time constraints I'm under. Any thoughts on what went wrong? And how long does it take to go through the SSD fine tuning if I can get it to work? Is it just not worth the trouble to have a nice clean setup where I can keep the Users tree in tact if I want to reinstall Windows? And where I can cleanly back up the entire Users tree without having things spread across two drives? My plan had been to do this on multiple PCs. In my head it seems like a very elegant and reliable method for maintaining multiple systems, multiple users, with flexibility to update/upgrade/clean install, etc.

Megahertz said:

If you did Method 2 you had to create a new account. The original account (that you were using before entering audit mode) is still there. If it was a local account it still is.
Log off the new account, log in with the old account and delete the new account.

Click to expand...

How do I log off the current account from the Windows region select screen? I never was given the opportunity to create a new account. I assumed that it was not necessary to deactivate any accounts, as @Kari says in the instructions that it's not necessary beyond a certain Windows 10 version. Did I misunderstand that?

glasskuter said:

I never move the entire C:\USERS folder to another drive. I don't even move an entire user account to another drive.(I would come near moving a user account than I would the USERS folder) Instead I move only the personal folders within an individual user account such as C:\Users\username\pictures (or downloads, music, etc) I Do NOT move appdata. By doing it this way, if my secondary data drive fails, I'm not completely blocked out of Windows and I can still activate my hidden administrator account if necessary. You can't do that if the entire USERS folder is moved and that secondary drive fails. If the system drive fails, you can't get into windows anyway so no harm no foul.

If your goal in doing this is to free up space on your system drive, you might consider this. This is the tutorial for moving the documents folder. The tutorials for moving all other user folders are at the bottom.

Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, why would you never move the entire Users folder? Does it create problems? If you move the folder as part of the initial Windows setup (Method 1 from Kari's tutorial), does that cause fewer problems (if there were any to begin with)? Or is it not about that?

Also, if you only move specific User folders, do you find any issue with the folders then being split across two drives being that a lot is left behind still on the C: drive?

Are there any issues with other users having access to the User files and folders left behind on the C: drive? I'm still learning about the behavior and standards of multiple user accounts.

My thinking was that it would be nice to move everything because it keeps everything then in one place, so it's easy to find everything and back everything up. It also seems tidier that way. I like the idea of being able to reinstall Windows and know that the entire Users tree is still in tact. I may being giving too much significance to the notion of tidiness and privacy/security between multiple users. That said, I suppose there isn't usually much of importance left in the Users folder on C: drive that needs to be accessed or backed up. A lot of that stuff is irrelevant within the context of a clean install. That's something I'm still trying to determine for sure.

On one of my recent PCs, I moved all of the User discreet folders (Documents, etc.) to another drive, but some games still insisted on placing files in the C: User folder that was left behind. So I had a personal user folder on the other drive and a personal user folder on the C: drive. Most software used the Documents folder on the other drive, but some software insisted on (even creating?) the Documents folder in my personal folder on the C: drive.

Where I'm at now (having still no luck getting Method 2 to work, despite it succeeding in moving the entire Users tree to another drive) and not wanting to start over with a clean install and try to do it that way (at least until later this year), is probably going back to the routine of just moving discreet User folders. It's just disappointing because it seemed so promising to be able to move everything including any future user accounts to the new location. Was that flawed thinking to begin with?

Rangoon said:

Out of curiosity, why would you never move the entire Users folder? Does it create problems?

Click to expand...

Just because one can do something doesn't mean one always should. MS has warned for years against moving a user account folder, let alone the entire USERS folder.. Back in the Windows 8 days there were many reports that updates failed when the default user account location was changed. Whether that remains true, I can not say. I guess it's not since others have done it.

Me personally, when I got this computer my system drive was small so I moved my personal folders to my secondary drive, but only Documents, Pictures,and Downloads. (My videos and music are on a Plex server on another machine.) I DID NOT MOVE Desktop nor appdata folders. That drive could have crashed or gotten corrupted and I could still have operated within windows.
The thing was, when I did move just the user folders, I always had multiple images of every drive I have so I knew if I screwed something up I could recover within 10 minutes.

I never advised you or anyone else not to do it. I only gave my personal opinion about doing it.
I look at it this way. Why would one want to take the chance of creating problems for himself? MS warning is enough for me. It makes much more sense to move only one's personal folders. But if moving USERS is what anyone wants to do. I say go for it. It's your computer, your choice.

glasskuter said:

Just because one can do something doesn't mean one always should. MS has warned for years against moving a user account folder, let alone the entire USERS folder.. Back in the Windows 8 days there were many reports that updates failed when the default user account location was changed. Whether that remains true, I can not say. I guess it's not since others have done it.

Me personally, when I got this computer my system drive was small so I moved my personal folders to my secondary drive, but only Documents, Pictures,and Downloads. (My videos and music are on a Plex server on another machine.) I DID NOT MOVE Desktop nor appdata folders. That drive could have crashed or gotten corrupted and I could still have operated within windows.
The thing was, when I did move just the user folders, I always had multiple images of every drive I have so I knew if I screwed something up I could recover within 10 minutes.

I never advised you or anyone else not to do it. I only gave my personal opinion about doing it.
I look at it this way. Why would one want to take the chance of creating problems for himself? MS warning is enough for me. It makes much more sense to move only one's personal folders. But if moving USERS is what anyone wants to do. I say go for it. It's your computer, your choice.

Click to expand...

I certainly wasn't suggesting you were telling me or anyone not to do it. I'm just wondering exactly that: what are the reasons to do it or not do it. What are the concerns, pros/cons, etc. I know what I would like to happen with my user experience, but I don't know on a technical level the consequences of doing one thing or another without a) direct experience, b) industry guidelines, or c) the experiences, anecdotes, and insights of other users. So I'm just looking for b and c, since I have never actually used Windows with the entire Users tree moved. I just know that it seems really appealing for several reasons. I completely understand, and exactly why I'm here asking, that there could be unforeseen problems. I don't want to add more trouble to my experience, or even unnecessary complexity. But if doing a thing gives me a better experience without any cost other than knowing how to do it, then for sure I want that.

I appreciate your thoughts.

And since my attempts to get it to work via Method 2 have failed, and I'm not yet willing to do a clean install, right now it's moot. So I'm trying to figure out if it's really worth pushing and getting this thing to happen or just waiting half a year before I have time again to tinker. (Or conclude that it'll never be worth any negative consequences and just give up on the idea.)

One thing that still just has me puzzled is why, even after moving the Documents folder, some programs still insist on putting things in C:\Users\user\Documents\ if Windows knows that the Documents folder was moved to another location. How does a game, for example, have permission to create that folder anew and put things into it? Moving the entire Users tree would, I suspect, solve that particular scenario.

Rangoon said:

One thing that still just has me puzzled is why, even after moving the Documents folder, some programs still insist on putting things in C:\Users\user\Documents\ if Windows knows that the Documents folder was moved to another location. How does a game, for example, have permission to create that folder anew and put things into it? Moving the entire Users tree would, I suspect, solve that particular scenario.

Click to expand...

Some developers do not get the path of a certain user folder correctly. For example, if they want the Documents folder, they'll sometimes get the path of the user's profile and tack "Documents" on the end. In reality, they should query the Windows API and ask it for the user's Documents folder.

They have permission to create the new folder, because the user always has permission to create folders in their own profile. The app/game/whatever is running as that user and can do anything the user can do.

You did a big mess.
- From Kari tutorial MethodTwo
a) Anything can go wrong when sysprepping an existing installation, I do not recommend doing this.
If you decide to try it and it fails and you post about it, I will remind you about this warning asking you to restore the system image you made before proceeding.
b) "Your original user accounts have not disappeared, everything is still there. However, the OOBE boot requires a user account to be created"

- You did a system restore that is, you loaded a pre moved Users register file to a pos moved Users. Not surprised you couldn't boot.

I had moved C:\Users (SSD) to D::\Users (HDD) not only on my computer bur also on a dozen friends computers, running Win 7, Win 10 and Win 11. Most of them I did during a clean install but some on an existing installation. All them were very successful.

Megahertz said:

You did a big mess.
- From Kari tutorial MethodTwo
a) Anything can go wrong when sysprepping an existing installation, I do not recommend doing this.
If you decide to try it and it fails and you post about it, I will remind you about this warning asking you to restore the system image you made before proceeding.
b) "Your original user accounts have not disappeared, everything is still there. However, the OOBE boot requires a user account to be created"

- You did a system restore that is, you loaded a pre moved Users register file to a pos moved Users. Not surprised you couldn't boot.

I had moved C:\Users (SSD) to D::\Users (HDD) not only on my computer bur also on a dozen friends computers, running Win 7, Win 10 and Win 11. Most of them I did during a clean install but some on an existing installation. All them were very successful.

Click to expand...

Sorry, no, you misunderstood. After I couldn't create a new local account and log in, after trying several times with bypassnro and having the same result, I gave up and *then* I did the system restore. Everything is fine. There is no mess. Windows is working perfectly fine exactly as it was before I attempted Method 2. I created the system restore image just prior to starting Method 2, so everything went back to exactly how it was.

That said, I think I figured out the problem. I hadn't intended to connect to any wifi networks, as I was using an ethernet cable. Easy to plug and unplug and know that I'm not connected to the internet. However, for some reason, I did end up connecting to wifi. I failed to "forget" that wifi connection. I think that may have been why I couldn't create the local account on oobe setup following Users relocation. Does that make sense? Windows would still have remembered the wifi connection and probably did connect. Would that override bypassnro and not allow the local account creation?

pseymour said:

Some developers do not get the path of a certain user folder correctly. For example, if they want the Documents folder, they'll sometimes get the path of the user's profile and tack "Documents" on the end. In reality, they should query the Windows API and ask it for the user's Documents folder.

They have permission to create the new folder, because the user always has permission to create folders in their own profile. The app/game/whatever is running as that user and can do anything the user can do.

Click to expand...

Ah, I see. Well that makes sense then. It's so rough on my OCD!

Megahertz said:

I had moved C:\Users (SSD) to D::\Users (HDD) not only on my computer bur also on a dozen friends computers, running Win 7, Win 10 and Win 11. Most of them I did during a clean install but some on an existing installation. All them were very successful.

Click to expand...

This is very encouraging. Have you ever noticed any downsides to this? Any games, software, Windows functions go awry or has it always been a smooth experience?

Rangoon said:

Have you ever noticed any downsides to this?

Click to expand...

The worst thing that could happen is Windows booting into a black desktop, creating a temporary account.
It can happen randomly. Usually a restart solves it, if not restoring a system backup should help, so backup!

Rangoon said:

Ah, I see. Well that makes sense then. It's so rough on my OCD!

Click to expand...

Sorry, but no.
To go find thee user profile folder the system looks for %userprofile% .
Put %userprofile% on explorer and it will take you to C:\Users\"Name"
In my case it takes me to D:\Users\Luiz