How to delete a user profile in Windows 10?

An unauthorized user name (Kiosk) has started appearing on my sign-on screen, and asks for its password. How can I get rid of it?

Original Title: Unwanted user

***Subject edited for clarity by the moderator.***

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You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to delete a user account. For us to assist you, we suggest that you visit this link. This is a thread with a similar issue, but it has been answered by one of my Microsoft moderator named Deepika Gowda.

Let us know how it goes.

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We noticed that this post has been inactive for a while now. Were you able to delete the said user profile? Did our recommendation resolve your concern? If not, please let us know so we can help you out.

We will be waiting for your response.

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Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, it didn’t solve my problem. This was probably because I asked the wrong question. The uninvited intruder’s name ( Kiosk) did not come up under other users’ names, but it almost acts as the administrator, it asks for its password before it asks for mine. I have to click on its password space to bring up my user picture. In Settings I am listed as Administrator.

Still puzzled, Huuk

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We appreciate that you have cleared the issue that you’re experiencing. Since you’re using a Kiosk, we suggest that you post your query to our TechNet forums. From there, you will be assisted promptly by our Microsoft specialists.

Let us know whenever you need further assistance.

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1.1 Is Kiosk listed if you enter this in the Command prompt / PowerShell?

1.2 If so then enter this next

You’ll see various details including if it is an Admin [member of the Administrators group] — judging from your description I think the answer is yes.

2 Is there a folder C:\Users\Kiosk? If not then it has never been logged in to.

3 I think you need to run full antimalware scans using both Windows defender and, say, Malwarebytes free [don’t accept their Premium trial].

• Did anybody else have physical access to your computer at the time this started?
• What unusual events happened before the symptom started?
• It looks like somebody has hacked into your computer but I think it is also possible that one of your installed applications has some weird way of working that involves the creation of a dummy user account. There is, for example, a group of Mozilla add-ons called Kiosk. Anything ring a bell?

4 Does the Kiosk account appear in Settings, Accounts, Family & other people, Other people subheading?

• If so select it & delete it there.
• If not then use one of these other methods — Delete a User Account — TenForums

How to delete a user profile from Windows 10 in 2 ways, and erase all their data and files

One of the best security features in Windows 10 is the ability to add multiple user accounts. If multiple people use the same computer, setting up different user accounts is the best way to keep each user’s files private.

But if there comes a point when you want to delete a user, either because they don’t need it anymore or you want to block their access, deleting a user account from a Windows 10 PC is simple, as long as you’re using an Administrator account.

Here’s how to do it.

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How to delete a user from Windows 10

1. Click on the Windows icon at the bottom-left of your screen and search for the «Settings» app.

2. Click the «Settings» app when it appears in the search results to open it.

3. Click on «Accounts.»

4. Click on «Family & other users» from the menu bar running along the left-hand side of the Settings window.

5. Under the «Other users» heading, click on the name of the account holder you want to remove from Windows 10.

6. Click «Remove.»

7. Click «Delete account and data» in the pop-up that appears. The account will then be removed.

Note, however, that this method only works for users listed as «Other users.» If you’ve added another user to your «Family,» you’ll have to instead:

1. Go to https://account.microsoft.com/family/ and sign into your Microsoft account.

2. You’ll be brought to a page that shows all the accounts currently connected to your «Microsoft family.»

3. Underneath the name of the person you want to delete, click «Remove from family.»

Once you do this, their account should be deleted.

Note that deleting a user from your Windows 10 machine will permanently delete all of their associated data, documents, and more.

If needed, ensure the user has a backup of any important files they want to keep before you delete.

How To Delete User Profile in Windows 10

In this article, we will see how to delete a profile for a user account without deleting the account itself. This will allow you to reset all preferences and settings for all apps and Windows for a specific user.

A user profile is a set of files and folders to store all the personal preferences, app settings, documents and other data. Every user account has an associated user profile. Usually, it is stored in the folder C:\Users\Username and includes a number of subfolders like Desktop, Documents, Downloads, etc along with hidden folders like AppData which store the settings for various Windows features and installed apps. The main purpose of the user profile is to create a personalized environment with individual options tailored to the end user.

If your user profile has got corrupted or if you need to reset it to default, then you can delete the profile without removing the account. The next time you sign-in, a new profile will automatically be created for your user account. Let’s see how it can be done.

Before proceeding, ensure that your user account has administrative privileges. Also, you cannot delete the profile for the current (active) account. Ensure you have signed in with another user account and not with the one whose profile data you wish to delete.

To delete a user profile in Windows 10, do the following.

Press Win + R hotkeys on the keyboard. The Run dialog will appear on the screen. Type the following into the text box and press Enter:

Advanced System Properties will open. There, click on the Settings button in the User Profiles section.

In the User Profiles window, select the profile of the user account and click the Delete button.

Confirm the request, and the profile of the user account will now be deleted.

The next time the user signs in, his or her profile will be re-created automatically, with all the default options and settings.

You might also be interested in learning how to delete a user profile manually. This procedure involves File Explorer and the Registry editor app.

Delete a user profile in Windows 10 manually

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Go to the folder C:\Users and look for the user name which you want to delete. The appropriate folder contains everything related to the user profile, so you just need to delete this folder.
3. Now, open Registry Editor.
4. Go to the following Registry key.

See how to go to a Registry key with one click.

On the left, go through the subkeys. For each subkey, look for the value data of the ProfileImagePath string value. Once you find the one which points to the deleted user profile, remove it. See the following screenshot:

That’s it! You just deleted the user profile for the account. It will be re-created using defaults the next time the user signs in.

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About Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer from Russia who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

6 thoughts on “ How To Delete User Profile in Windows 10 ”

Does not work for me. I can see two profiles “Default Profile ” and “DESKTOP-CPCG5CI/user”. First one lets me “Copy To…” and the second “Change Type…”. Delete option is greyed out on both of them. I can’t delete my user folder manually either. Netplwiz option shows me as administrator, but everything is locked up/greyed out.

Does anybody knows of a software able to remove multiple user profiles in Windows 10?
DelProf or DelProf2 are not working in Windows 10 even though it has worked for certain people.

How to Delete User Account in Windows 10

Windows 10 lets you easily create or delete user accounts with ease. Generally, it is not only advised but a best practice to create a user account for every user using your system. For instance, if you are sharing your computer with your brother or sister, it is better to create their own user account so that they can customize the desktop and applications to meet their needs. That being said, if you have unused user accounts, it is better to delete them to minimize any unauthorized use. Follow the below steps to delete user account in Windows 10.

Deleting a user account will delete all the files in their home folders like documents, pictures, videos, etc. So, back up those files before deleting the account.

Jump to:

Delete User Account in Windows 10

There are multiple ways to delete a user account in Windows 10. Those ways include using the settings app, control panel, advanced user accounts tool, command prompt, and PowerShell. I will show all these methods. Use the one you are comfortable.

Method #1 – Use Settings App to Delete User Account

The settings app provides the easiest way to delete a user account in Windows 10.

1. Press Win + I to open the settings app. You can also search for it in the start menu. Once the settings app has been opened, click on the “Accounts” option.

2. In the Accounts page, go to the “Family & other users” tab appearing on the left panel. On the right panel, find the user account you want to delete under the “Other users” section and click on it.

3. Next, click on the “Remove” button under the user account name.

4. Windows will now show a confirmation window. Click on the “Delete account and data” button.

As soon as you click on the delete button, Windows will delete all the files in that user’s home folders and delete the user account. The user account will disappear from the settings page.

Method #2 – Use Good Old Control Panel to Delete Windows 10 User Account

Though Windows 10 is slowly moving towards the settings app, you can still remove a user account from the control panel. The good thing about this method is that you are offered to keep the user-specific files while deleting the user account.

1. Search for the control panel in the start menu and open it. In the control panel, make sure that the “View by” is set to “Large Icons”. Next, find the “User Accounts” option and click on it.

2. You’ll be taken to your account management page. Since we want to delete another user, click on the “Manage another account” link.

3. In this screen, select the user account you want to delete. In my case, I want to delete a user account named “WindowsLoop”.

4. Now, click on the “Delete the account” link.

5. When prompted, to keep the files, click on the “Keep Files” button. To delete the files, click on the “Delete Files” button. If you chose to keep the files, you will see a new folder with all the backed up files on your desktop.

6. To confirm the deletion, click on the “Delete Account” button.

That is it. You are done deleting a user account in Windows 10. The deleted user account will be disappeared from the control panel.

Method #3 – Netplwiz to Remove User Account

Windows has an advanced user control tool that makes it quite easy to create and remove user accounts a breeze. This tool is mainly aimed at power users and administrators. As such, the advanced user accounts tool is buried deep within Windows.

1. To open the advanced user accounts tool, press Win + R , type netplwiz in the blank field and press the Enter button.

2. In this window, select the user account from the list under “Users for this computer” and click on the “Remove” button.

3. You will see a confirmation window something like the below one. Click on the “Yes” button to continue.

As soon as you click on the button, the user account will be removed and deleted. Of course, all the user-specific files will be deleted too.

Method #4 – Command to Delete User Account

Just as you can use the command prompt to create a user account, you can also delete a user account from the command prompt.

1. You need admin privileges to delete a user account with commands. So, search for the command prompt in the start menu, right-click on it and select the “Run as administrator” option.

2. Before you can delete a user account, you need to know the actual user name. So, execute the below command and it will show a list of all the user accounts in your system. Find the user account you want to delete and note down the name. We are going to need that username in the next command.

3. Now, execute the below command while replacing “UserName” with the actual username. As soon as you press the Enter button, the user account will be removed along with any user files of that user account.

4. To verify, use the first command and see if the user is still in the list.

Method #5 – PowerShell Command to Remove User Account

You can do almost everything and more with PowerShell. Deleting a user account is nothing special. So, if you are PowerShell guy, follow the below steps.

1. Search for “PowerShell” in the start menu, right-click on it and select the “Run as administrator” option.

2. Just like with the command prompt, you need to know the exact username to delete the account. So, use the below command. It will list all the user accounts in your system. Note down the username you want to delete.

3. Now, execute the below command while replacing “UserName” with the actual user name. You will not see any output, but the user account is deleted in the background.

4. To verify the deletion, use the first command.

That is it. It is that simple to delete a user account in Windows 10. If you face any problems or have questions, comment below and I will try to help as much as possible.