In Windows, there is no simple and obvious way to move the entire user folder to another location so we’ll need to make some modifications in the registry. This method may not be optimal, but it works for me. I am using Windows 7 Professional and I’m not sure if it works for Vista or XP. This method will move the entire user profile, including the standard folders like Documents, Pictures, and Music in addition to the hidden AppData folder where applications store their settings.

Before starting, I recommend that this is done very early after installing Windows 7 since poorly written programs reference a static path instead of looking up a system variable. This means that the program will try to access the old user folder instead of the new location after the user folder has been moved. I’ll assume that the next steps are done immediately after a clean Windows 7 install and the Windows install partition is in C:\ and the partition to move the user folder is D:\. So, in the end I want to move C:\Users to D:\Users.

After install, Windows 7 creates the first user account. Because we haven’t messed with the registry just yet, it will create the account in C:\Users\. Nothing can be done about this right now, so just create the account with a throwaway name.

The Folder Options Dialog

First, change folder options to show hidden files and folders by opening an explorer window, press Alt, then from the menu bar choose Tools > Folder Options. Click the View tab and choose “Show hidden files, folders, and drives.”

Next, go to C:\Users\ and copy the Public and Default folders to D:\Users\.

Open up the registry editor by typing “regedit” in the Start Menu search box and press Enter. Navigate to the following path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

After changing the values.

Change the Default, ProfilesDirectory, and Public strings to the location that you want them to be. For example, I changed them from %SystemDrive%\Users\Default, %SystemDrive%\Users, and %SystemDrive%\Users\Public to D:\Users\Default, D:\Users, and D:\Users\Public, respectfully.

From now on, the Default and Public profiles are located in the new path and all new user profiles will be created in the ProfilesDirectory path.

Now, use the control panel to create a new account and it should be created in D:\Users\.

Log out and log in to the new account to make sure that it is, in fact, located in D:\Users\. If you have an existing user profile that you wish to use, just copy everything into the newly created user profile and overwrite everything and log back in to the new account. Once everything works, you may delete the throwaway account.