Local account

Octopuss · Oct 18, 2025

It looks like local accounts really are an afterthought in Win 11

I installed english international version via unattended setup, but for some weird reason the account name is showing up with broken characters because I specified the display name in czech in the answer file just like I always did with Win 10. I am surprised this is somewhat broken in this time and age. Does anyone know whether there is any way to make this show up correctly? This is just an experimental installation while I check everything works, so I can do this as many times as possible.

antspants · Oct 18, 2025

I believe you should be able to use these two tutorials, @Brink can correct me if I am wrong

Change Name of User Profile Folder in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to rename a user profile folder for any account (local account or Microsoft account) in Windows 10 and Windows 11. When adding a new user account in Windows, a profile for the account is automatically created when the user signs in to the new account for the...

www.elevenforum.com

Change User Account Name in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to change the name of a local account or Microsoft account in Windows 10 and Windows 11. Having different accounts on a shared PC lets multiple people use the same device, all while giving everyone their own sign-in info, plus access to their own files, browser...

www.elevenforum.com

Octopuss · Oct 18, 2025

Ah ok, the good old control panel they still didn't get rid of. And there's no way to do this in the new settings. I mean come on Microsoft, WTF?

But it's still weird that stuff you type in autounattend.xml doesn't work properly.

antspants · Oct 18, 2025

Octopuss said:
But it's still weird that stuff you type in autounattend.xml doesn't work properly.

Perhaps it needs tweaking. I would suggest you post it in here, wrap it in code tags

Octopuss · Oct 18, 2025

It's as simple as having account name in non english characters.

Code:

                <LocalAccounts>
                    <LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
                        <Name>Martina</Name>
                        <DisplayName>Zvířová</DisplayName>
                        <Group>Administrators</Group>
                        <Password>
                            <Value>blabla</Value>
                            <PlainText>true</PlainText>
                        </Password>
                    </LocalAccount>
                </LocalAccounts>

When the OS gets installed, settings shows question marks instead of those czech characters.

antspants · Oct 18, 2025

Octopuss said:

It's as simple as having account name in non english characters.

Code:

                <LocalAccounts>
                    <LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
                        <Name>Martina</Name>
                        <DisplayName>Zvířová</DisplayName>
                        <Group>Administrators</Group>
                        <Password>
                            <Value>blabla</Value>
                            <PlainText>true</PlainText>
                        </Password>
                    </LocalAccount>
                </LocalAccounts>

When the OS gets installed, settings shows question marks instead of those czech characters.

It’s not always simple. If you’re not wanting to post the whole file, no problem. But there are members in here that could spot anything that may need to be tweaked. If they wish to help.

Octopuss · Oct 18, 2025

Whatever might need tweaking is unrelated to this. The answer file is like 90%+ identical to the one I'd been using for Windows 10.
This just looks like a bug of some sort, but I can't figure out where is it coming from.
I tried with czech ISO and the account name is displaying broken too. Something about the actual setup that parses the configuration file apparently doesn't understand non-english characters, which is completely ridiculous. Unicode has been around for what, 20+ years?

antspants · Oct 18, 2025

This is Windows 11, not windows 10. Not sure why you asked for help, you obviously don’t need any.

Octopuss · Oct 18, 2025

The autounattend.xml file is almost literally identical, and all the settings work like they used to. There are some new ones but that's about it. I fail to see your point.
I also fail to understand what can good is posting personal configuration when it's completely unrelated.

Skeptic Mike · Oct 19, 2025

Octopuss said:
The autounattend.xml file is almost literally identical

I suspect you've not followed the character encoding rules for xml. Either look those up or use an xml editor that understands them.
Alternatively, ignore the issue because changing display names is easy.

Octopuss · Oct 19, 2025

I am not aware there are any rules to that. To be honest, I don't even understand what's the point of .xml, the files make no sense to me, and are mostly unreadable.
But thanks, I'll try to google that up.

The answer file is encoded in utf-8 by default though, so I am not quite sure how this cannot work.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
...etc

Octopuss · Oct 19, 2025

At least I found an elegant way to quickly change the name if I can't figure out the unattended setup.

wmic UserAccount where fullname='oldname' rename newname

Octopuss · Oct 19, 2025

Ok, wmic is not longer in Win11, jeez.
Supposedly I should use Powershell, but I can't google up how to rename the display name, only the username.

garlin · Oct 19, 2025

The simple test is to run the same unattended file on W10 22H2 or W11 21H2-23H2 images.

24H2 differs by introducing the new Setup client (which treats a clean install as an "upgrade"). Not everything works exactly the same in the new Setup.

dacrone · Oct 19, 2025

Octopuss said:
At least I found an elegant way to quickly change the name if I can't figure out the unattended setup.

wmic UserAccount where fullname='oldname' rename newname

so do it with powershell...

Code:

Rename-LocalUser -Name "oldname" -NewName "newname"

if you HAVE to have wmi...

Code:

$oldName = "oldname"
$newName = "newname"

$user = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_UserAccount -Filter "Name='oldName' AND LOcalAccount=True"
if ($user) {
    $account = [ADSI]"WinNT://$env:COMPUTERNAME/$oldName,user"
    $account.Rename($newName)
} else {
    Write-Host "User '$oldName' not found."
}

Octopuss · Oct 20, 2025

garlin said:
The simple test is to run the same unattended file on W10 22H2 or W11 21H2-23H2 images.

24H2 differs by introducing the new Setup client (which treats a clean install as an "upgrade"). Not everything works exactly the same in the new Setup.

Yup, I will do that.

dacrone said:
so do it with powershell...

Code:

Rename-LocalUser -Name "oldname" -NewName "newname"

I have to use powershell since wmic is deprecated, but like I wrote, thus far I only managed to google up how to change the username, not the display name.

pseymour · Oct 20, 2025

You would use Set-LocalUser to change the display name.

Set-LocalUser -Name 'user_name_here' -FullName 'New Display Name Here'

Octopuss · Oct 20, 2025

pseymour said:
You would use Set-LocalUser to change the display name.

Set-LocalUser -Name 'user_name_here' -FullName 'New Display Name Here'

Thanks!

pseymour · Oct 20, 2025

Well that's all Rename-LocalUser does, rename local users. There are other commands for manipulating local user accounts.

Powershell:

ps C:\Users\LadyGodiva> Get-Command -Noun 'LocalUser'

CommandType     Name                                               Version    Source
-----------     ----                                               -------    ------
Cmdlet          Disable-LocalUser                                  1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts
Cmdlet          Enable-LocalUser                                   1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts
Cmdlet          Get-LocalUser                                      1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts
Cmdlet          New-LocalUser                                      1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts
Cmdlet          Remove-LocalUser                                   1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts
Cmdlet          Rename-LocalUser                                   1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts
Cmdlet          Set-LocalUser                                      1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts

Octopuss · Oct 20, 2025

This gets even weirder.
If I run the rename command from a batch file, the account name gets even more butchered, but when I open command prompt, the name displays correcrly.

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