New account replication settings

Hi,

I have a PC (Windows 11) and am an admin on that PC.

I have 5 other family members and I would like to create a separate account for all 5 of them.

How can can copy all my settings (programs installed, theme, etc) and replicate this for the 5 new accounts.

I would like these 5 accounts to be set up as a standard user also (not admin)

To summarize, is there a way to replicate a Windows 11 account including all the settings?

Thank you.

The poor mans method would be to add content to C:\Users\Default. This is the skeleton profile for all new profiles on a system. The tricky part can be copying user registry settings into C:\Users\Default\NTUSER.DAT. That would require loading that hive and would need a script or a dump and edit to re-import into the default profile hive

No. Personalized settings and options are on a per user basis.

Regarding applications you have installed under the main user account,
Most, but not all, program installers install the program for all users and these programs will appear in any user's start menu. However, some programs will install only for the user that was used to install the program. For any program that was not installed for all users, typically all one needs to do to make the program accessible to all users on the computer is copy these shortcuts to a location that all users can access, such as the Public Desktop or Start Menu. OR you can reinstall the program for all users from any new account you create. However, the latter method won't work in your case since these additional users are standard accounts which are not allowed to install apps.

For any application that does not show up in a new user start menu:
Find the application's shortcut icon(s) in the installing user's account. Common places where icons are created in the main user account:

• C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
• C:\Users\<username>\Desktop

Copy the shortcut(s) to one or both of the following locations:

• C:\Users\Public\Public Desktop
• C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

Note: Appdata and Programdata are hidden folders. To see them, you have to set file explorer folder options to 'show hidden files, folder, and drives'. (Control Panel>File explorer options>View Tab)

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