Change the default user for Windows 7 and above

by John C. Wray III Friday, October 17, 2014 7:56 AM

If you want to modify the default user profile that someone would get first time logging in to a desktop here is an easy way to accomplish this.

1. Create and configure your model profile. I used the svc-vmware account
2. Reboot the VM and log in with a local admin account. (administrator is disabled by default, create one or enable the account and set a password)
3. Launch regedit, navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList]
4. Note that the value data DEFAULT (reg_expand_sz) is….. %SystemDrive%\Users\Default
5. right-click and Modify the string and change the path to ….%SystemDrive%\Users\svc-vmware
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NOW COPY THE PROFILE
What this will do is trick windows 7 into copying what it thinks is the default profile to the default profile location. You changed what it thinks the location of the Default Profile to svc-vmware in step #5… Make sure you have show hidden folders set in folder options.
6. Right click “Computer”, click properties
7. Click Advanced System Settings
8. Under User Profiles, click on Settings…
9. Choose (click) on “Default Profile”
10. Click on “Copy To…”
11. Browse to or enter the path to the default user profile “C:\Users\Default”
12. Under “permitted to use” click on “change” type the object name “everyone”
13. Click OK, then OK again.
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AFTER PROFILE COPIES SUCCESSFULLY THEN REVERT REGISTRY TO DEFAULT BY REPEATING STEPS 1-4.
14. Revert the original value data for the DEFAULT (reg_expand_sz) string path back to…. %SystemDrive%\Users\Default
After you change the registry back I usually delete most of the locally saved profiles and log back in as svc-vmware to make sure the default profile I will get is correct.

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Microsoft

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