Change Winodws 7 Default User Profile

It's always a good idea to separate user data from program partition (where your Windows and other programes reside - norally C:) hard disk. This makes it easier when you need to re-install Windows and back up your data. It only makes sense to do this if you have a separate partition or an extra hard disk.

The default location of user profile is still the same as Visa, in c:\users folder. Say you want to store all your users profile in d:\UsersData, do followings:

1. Copy c:\users to the new location say d: drive.
2. There is going to have a error message stated "The action can't be completed because the file is open in System". Tick "Do this for the current items (xx found)" and click "Skip" button.
3. Rename d:\users to something you like, say d:\UsersData.
4. Open Registry Editor: c:\windows\regedit.exe
5. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WONDOWS NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
6. Change Default (not "(Default)") key to d:\UsersData\Default
7. Change Profile Directory key to d:\Users
8. Change Public key to d:\UsersData\Public
9. Restart Windows and then Login as usual
10. Delete c:\Users