[Ultimate Guide]: Windows 10 Change User Folder Location

Why change User folder location on Windows 10?

On Windows, the user folder is a special folder that contains all user-generated non-Windows operating system-related data, such as your desktop, documents, and personal data.

Since the default Users folder is located on the C drive, when the C drive almost full, in order to free up more space on the C drive, some users may ask "Can I move my Users folder from C drive to D drive? ". Apart from that, other users feel that it would be safer to move the User folder to another location to prevent data loss if the C drive crashes.

If you also want to know the ways of moving User profile from C drive to another drive, please read on. This post aims to show you how to complete Windows 10 change User folder location.

How does Windows 10 change User folder location?

This part provides 3 methods to achieve Windows 10 change default User folder location, you can choose one of them according to your conditions.

▶ Method 1. Change User folder location on Windows 10 with Registry

This method is going to show you how to use Registry Editor to change User profile folders’ paths on Windows 10.

Step 1. Press “Windows + R”, type in “regedit” and hit “Enter” to run Registry Editor.

Step 2. Follow the path: "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\User Shell Folders" and you will see all the User folders are listed.

Step 3. Now you can choose which User folder you want to move, then right-click it, and choose “Modify”.

Step 4. Then, type the new location for the target folder as you like and click "OK".

Step 5. Now, you can close Registry and reboot PC.

▶ Method 2. Use File Explorer to change folder location

In this method, I will show you how to move the Documents folder to the E drive, it also applies to Windows 10 change User folder location.

Step 1. Open File Explorer first.

Step 2. Click “This PC” from the left pane. Under the “Devices and Drivers”, open the new drive location. Then navigate to the new location where you need to move the Documents folder.

Step 3. In the new location, create a folder with the same name as the destination folder. (For example, create a new folder called “Documents”)

Step 4. Find the Documents folder in the original path, right-click and select “Properties”.

Step 5. In the "Document Properties" window, click "Location" tab and then choose "Move".

Step 6. Now, choose the new folder you created just now, and click "Apply" and “OK” to finish the process.

▶ Method 3. Change User folder location safely with professional software

How do I move a User profile to another drive on Windows? As you can see, both method 1 and method 2 can complete Windows 10 change User folder location, but the steps are complicated. More importantly, these operations may cause the User folder to fail to run properly, resulting in data loss.

To change the User folder location more safely and easily, I suggest you try AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. This is a powerful folders transfer utility that allows you to move the default folders on your computer to another drive without losing data. In addition to that, it supports moving installed programs to a different drive without reinstalling.

Tip: For system security, AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional does not support moving the whole User folder, but can move subfolders in it, you can move folders that are not related to the system.

 Step 1. Install and launch PA Professional, right-click the target drive, and click "APP Mover".

Step 2. In the new window, click “Move Folder”.

Step 3. Select the folder you want to move. Choose the location drive under the window, and click “Move”(Make sure the target drive has enough space to store it. If the space is insufficient, you can extend the partition first and try again).

Step 4. Wait for a while, and click "Finish".

Conclusion

Now, I believe you already know how Windows 10 change User folder location, here are 3 methods for you to choose. However, in my opinion, AOMEI Partition Assistant is what you can rely on. It has more features waiting for you to unlock, such as allocating free space, migrating OS to SSD, cloning disk, deleting large files by type to save more space on the C drive, and more.

Last but not least, If you need to move User folder from C drive to another drive on Windows Server, please switch to Server Edition.