Delete old Work account from Personal Laptop

[GreenBoy]

Hi.

For a year I worked with a consultancy and used my own laptop to do their work, and used their account to sign into Office 365 etc...
I have left their employ, but their account is still on my PC and seems to be the default when I go to log into Windows... windows was preinstalled on my machine when I purchased it and is registered to me under a personal account... I have an Office 365 account in my company name, different to the consultancy I worked for, but this only ever shows as a second option.

I want to delete all refs to the consultancy from my machine but there seems no option, and if I log into my accounts the consultancy account is not even present...

If anyone can point me in the right direction I would be grateful.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.
GreenBoy

 

[Bighorn]

I have had success a number of times, and will be doing it later today and in lieu of a clean install, in adding a new Local Account with Admin rights, rebooting into it then deleting the old account. A re-install doesn't get rid of all the old stuff

Downside is in potentially losing installed programs. I've not had the "privilege" of working with Office 365 yet, latest is Office 2016, my clients are older home users and like the free LibreOffice and use Webmail.

An advantage to the new account is it creates a new profile which should not have anything about the old stuff. The job I have today is for a Notebook from a church which will be given away to an unknown soul so I'll use the name of Owner for the purpose and it will be a Local Account, not a Microsoft Account.

 

[The Shadow 2023]

There may be exceptions, of course, but typically, here's what I do to get rid of an old user:

I go into the control panel, and "Users", and I create for myself a NEW User, with admin privileges. (so now there are two users recorded in Windows)
I reboot Windows, and log in as the New user (me).
Then I go back to the control panel and "Users"and delete the old user. Then reboot!

Once the old user has been deleted, all their personal files and references will be GONE.

That's the safe way to change ownership of a PC from one person to another without adversely affecting Windows itself.
It's usually the first thing I do, when someone gives me their old PC.

A clean re-install of Windows is always an option, but then that can mean having to track down various hardware drivers, install updates, etc. That's more work than most people are really up to.

Cheers Mate
Shadow

 

[Xploit Machine]

in RUN command -> type lusrmgr. msc

create New User & Password such as below, reboot the computer login with the new account and again goto lusrmgr. msc to remove the unwanted user from the list and when it prompts all existing files of the user will be removed, click yes. Done !

another choice is to FRESH INSTALL Windows 11 again

 

[Bill Shannon]

There may be exceptions, of course, but typically, here's what I do to get rid of an old user:

I go into the control panel, and "Users", and I create for myself a NEW User, with admin privileges. (so now there are two users recorded in Windows)
I reboot Windows, and log in as the New user (me).
Then I go back to the control panel and "Users"and delete the old user. Then reboot!

Once the old user has been deleted, all their personal files and references will be GONE.

That's the safe way to change ownership of a PC from one person to another without adversely affecting Windows itself.
It's usually the first thing I do, when someone gives me their old PC.

A clean re-install of Windows is always an option, but then that can mean having to track down various hardware drivers, install updates, etc. That's more work than most people are really up to.

Cheers Mate
Shadow

Does this remove the old user folder under the old user name as well and what happens with the user files in that folder as admin do they transfer across? Wish I knew this trick in feburary as I wouldn't have so much work in the old user folder I did remove the old account and made it my account but I was stuck with the old user folder. I'm Bill and my user folder is Fiona I just hate that I can't rename the user folder.

 

[Bighorn]

Does this remove the old user folder under the old user name as well and what happens with the user files in that folder as admin do they transfer across? Wish I knew this trick in feburary as I wouldn't have so much work in the old user folder I did remove the old account and made it my account but I was stuck with the old user folder. I'm Bill and my user folder is Fiona I just hate that I can't rename the user folder.

One can change the User name but it doesn't change the folder name in C:\Users, for that it's best to add the new user as desired, reboot into it then remove the original. Did just that on an Acer Aspire with WinVista yesterday, cleaning it up before experimenting with a later version of Windows.

 

[Bill Shannon]

I get that but I'm self mananging ndis and I can't mess with that and some aspects of my system is kept in the user folder. Could I start a new user account with the same ID and email address?
It would clean up one problem I have. I believe somthing won't work removing c/user folder might be one drive or somthing.

 

[Bighorn]

I get that but I'm self mananging ndis and I can't mess with that and some aspects of my system is kept in the user folder. Could I start a new user account with the same ID and email address?
It would clean up one problem I have. I believe somthing won't work removing c/user folder might be one drive or somthing.

DON'T do that, I had to clean install one last fall for a client's father that had done that. Using identical names and log-ins mixed up all the documents, downloads, etc., into the same user folder and subfolders in C:\Users and couldn't separate them. Best if 2 or more users are set up that they be at least one character difference from all the others and use a different E-Mail for each.

 

[The Shadow 2023]

If there is data in the Old User's folder that you want to save, do that before you remove the old user, or it will be gone forever. Best to save it to some external media, like a Flash Drive, CD or external HD.
Luck!

 

[Bill Shannon]

I have a user folder in my name with that stuff coppied to as a result I have the longest library list etc I have ever seen on a computer its so confusing to find the right place to go.

 

[Bighorn]

When changing users I always work with files in C:\Users folder/s as the Libraries and Quick Access are mostly shortcuts to those folders, right-click an item and Properties will show that. It also keeps me from inadvertently adding more to the Libraries and Quick Access, at my age too easy to get confused.

 

[The Shadow 2023]

Every time a customer has given me their old PC, I've always copied all their old data to a DVD, which I will give back to them.
Then I performed the old standard way of 86'ing the old user.
I made me a new user on that PC, with Admin properties.
Then I'd just log in as ME, and delete the old user, reboot, and all the old user stuff is GONE.
Simple, easy and just one more job done, in a long list of jobs done.
By doing it that way, I've preserved all the hardware drivers, Windows updates, etc.

 

[Bighorn]

I did just that early this year, was given an HP Laptop 15 with red lines and flashing screens and an HP Desktop, both from 2019 originally with Win10 Home and clients had upgraded to Win11. The Desktop worked out fine but not so the Laptop, ended up wiping the drive and doing a full clean install, has been good since. All I could figure was there were remnants of the Intel video driver hiding and the clean drive got rid of them.

 

[Bill Shannon]

Hi.

For a year I worked with a consultancy and used my own laptop to do their work, and used their account to sign into Office 365 etc...
I have left their employ, but their account is still on my PC and seems to be the default when I go to log into Windows... windows was preinstalled on my machine when I purchased it and is registered to me under a personal account... I have an Office 365 account in my company name, different to the consultancy I worked for, but this only ever shows as a second option.

I want to delete all refs to the consultancy from my machine but there seems no option, and if I log into my accounts the consultancy account is not even present...

If anyone can point me in the right direction I would be grateful.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.
GreenBoy

Just leave it like that as the old account is gone just the folder name remains and thats the way it is there are suppose to be ways to change this but some important things will no longer be available to you I'm bill but my onedrive is fiona thinking about cross dressing NOT!!!!

 

[Bill Shannon]

Just leave it like that as the old account is gone just the folder name remains and thats the way it is there are suppose to be ways to change this but some important things will no longer be available to you I'm bill but my onedrive is fiona thinking about cross dressing NOT!!!!

Bon't create another folder in your name or you'll have double folders and take about a year to navagate them and without some blue text in one account I would still be lost.

 

[Bighorn]

I had to fix a Notebook this summer where the owner had added a Local Account with the exact same User name as the Microsoft Account, all files for both users went into the same folders in C:\Users, couldn't remove one user without losing all files. I proved it by first doing a full backup then deleted the Local not saving its files, did delete all the files leaving empty folders. He had been given advice by a neighbor but it was incomplete.

 

[Xploit Machine]

in Command Prompt enable Administrator by typing as below, restart the computer, logon with Administrator account and delete unwanted users

net user Administrator /active:yes