How can I merge two Vista user accounts

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Mark - 05 Apr 2008 09:34 GMT

When I first started the new machine I made an admin account named Mark then
I used Easy Transfer to move info from my old machine to the new one and it
set up a new account named Mark Admin and required me to put a password in.
Now I have two accounts with my stuff in both and I would like to move the
content of one and delete the other. On line concierge could not find any
help for me:(

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Rick Rogers - 05 Apr 2008 12:38 GMT

Hi Mark,

There's no method of merging accounts, you simply need to choose one or the
other and save the data from the one being removed.

Boot up and log into the one you want to keep. Open Windows Explorer as
administrator (right click/run as admin) and take ownership of the files in
the other profile that you want to save. You may need to alter folder
options/view/advanced to see hidden and system folders to do this. Move the
files you wish to save to your user profile, then remove the other account
from the Control Panel/Users.

Alternately, you can boot into the one you don't want to keep and move all
data to the Public Documents folders, then logoff and log into the desired
account and remove the unwanted one from the Control Panel/Users.

Signature

Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

> When I first started the new machine I made an admin account named Mark
> then I used Easy Transfer to move info from my old machine to the new one
> and it set up a new account named Mark Admin and required me to put a
> password in. Now I have two accounts with my stuff in both and I would
> like to move the content of one and delete the other. On line concierge
> could not find any help for me:(

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todd@tscad.net - 31 May 2008 08:04 GMT

Hello Mark!

Who knows if you'll ever get this because it's been a while since your
post. But I'll write this anyway! There are two methods that I know
of in order to merge the accounts. I have personally used both of
them and they work.

The first way is to follow these steps:

Copy the old profile to the new profile

1. Control Panel\System.
2. Click on Advanced System Settings.
3. Click Settings button under the User Profiles section.
4. Click the profile you want to copy.
5. Click Copy to and type in or browse for the profile you want to
overwrite.
6. Click the Permitted to use button and add all user accounts that
you want to give
full control of the profile to.
7. Click Ok.

There's also a program out there (sorry, for the life of me I can't
find it!) that will make the change for you. I'd do a search and try
to find it. If I happen to stumble across it I'll post it here!

Good Luck

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Bender - 31 May 2008 09:32 GMT

You could probably use the Windows Easy Transfer program to do what you
want.

> Hello Mark!
>
[quoted text clipped - 23 lines]
>
> Good Luck

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