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If you install Windows 10 using a Microsoft account, instead of a local account, it will truncate the username to five letters, and use that as the user directory and a few other things. (you can fix the user directory with this: https://superuser.com/a/955026/310715)

My question, which I can't seem to find an answer to, is why! Why is Microsoft truncating the user name to five characters for linked accounts? To put it another way: why is the truncation taking place and why the (seemingly) arbitrary length?

EDIT: this question was closed as generating primarily opinion based answers. I guess the presumption is that only Microsoft can know the reason why they chose to truncate, and why they chose five characters. But, if they've published their thinking somewhere, or someone has credentialed knowledge, I think there is still an answer out there lurking. Please, if you have information or leads, add comments.

undrline - Reinstate Monica
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  • Not sure if this belongs on "superuser" ... if there's a way to move the question to the appropriate site, I'm all for it. – undrline - Reinstate Monica Nov 23 '16 at 14:41
  • I'm interested, and would like to know more. The whole idea of using a Microsoft registered email address instead of a local account is not a good idea for a lot of reasons, and we must be able to easily switch back and forth, at least. Any other unintended consequences, we should all understand completely so we can mitigate the negative effects. I can see however, why your user folder name should NOT be a long email address. – DaaBoss Nov 23 '16 at 14:51
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    @DaaBoss, but, rather than truncating at 5 chars, it would make sense to truncate at the commercial at symbol, since that separates the handle from the domain anyway. – undrline - Reinstate Monica Nov 23 '16 at 15:02
  • I'm sure the concept of a single sign in, which is the case for login into a PC that is part of a domain anyway, made sense to Microsoft. User folder names have remained as a cause all types of problems for home users that use multiple PCs. IMO, if your family has trusted users with their own PC, and certainly if you are replacing your PC, using the identical username for all PCs prevents many problems, since all the links and folder names are now identical. – DaaBoss Nov 23 '16 at 15:54
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    As you implied when you mentioned the previous question that references a similar scenario, the most graceful way to initially setup your Windows 10 profile is to first utilize a local login account, then "convert it" to your Microsoft account. In addition to creating a standard profile folder hierarchy, it also makes a difference when you check online to see which computer names are attached to your Microsoft account (for digital entitlement licenses, etc.). If you use your Microsoft account for initial setup before you rename the computer, that generic computer name is retained online. – Run5k Nov 23 '16 at 15:58
  • Not only Windows 10 but also windows 8. MS live account name will just be truncated without reason. For exampe `someuser` would become `someu` – phuclv Nov 23 '16 at 16:26
  • @Run5k - Seeing which PC names are attached to your account by logging into Microsoft is extremely important. Here's why: If you replace your HD, your OEM Windows key is NOT stored in an accessible place anymore, so there is no way for Microsoft to authenticate your PC's new Windows installation. True, even if you have a Dell, Lenovo, HP. By attaching your PC, your PC's fingerprint is recorded by MS, so you can reinstall Windows from a bare DVD with no license key. (Image backup would restore with the key to a new HD.) – DaaBoss Nov 23 '16 at 17:13
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    I wonder what happens if two usernames shared the same first 5 characters? – Stevoisiak Jun 05 '17 at 15:08
  • I agree with the notion that I'm getting opinion-based answers, but if there is no documentation available or that can be found, I don't know how to re-word the question to stop people from speculation. So, I can't agree with the closure. – undrline - Reinstate Monica Oct 25 '17 at 15:35
  • it seems the problem has been fix, at least from build 17035 – phuclv Nov 18 '17 at 04:42
  • @phuclv no, it hasn't, as I installed latest W10 yesterday. – Alex Zhukovskiy Aug 24 '18 at 13:28
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    @AlexZhukovskiy I've just installed W10 3 times last weekend and now somehow it truncates my username to 5 letters – phuclv Aug 24 '18 at 14:31
  • It always behave like this and it doesn't seem like MS is going to do something. – Alex Zhukovskiy Aug 24 '18 at 14:35
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    "5 letters ought to be enough for anybody's name." _-Gates_ – Amit Naidu Nov 04 '18 at 15:08
  • Without a link, I assume that's facetious, @amit_naidu – undrline - Reinstate Monica Nov 05 '18 at 16:39
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    I think it's a perfectly valid question to ask why would microsoft do this. Names are important to people and it's very rude to truncate one's name, let alone do it on their own personal computer. The way a lot of people find this out is by opening powershell and seeing their mangled name on C:\Users\<...>. The recourse to fix this is risky and requires time. Lots of people end up corrupting their user profile and then having to reinstall windows-- only to have it happen again because they had thought it was their own typo during the install, but no, it's Microsoft Windows doing it. – teego1967 Nov 14 '20 at 18:03
  • "I think it's a perfectly valid question to ask why would microsoft do this." Then you don't understand the purpose of this site. This isn't a dumping ground for opinions without facts like Quora. From this site: "You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face." Why MS makes bad decisions and acts like it hates its customers does not help in solving any problem (the answer is greed, BTW). This would be a valid question if it gave us any idea that there is a solution. (Does the OP want to change usernames or prevent truncated names?) – Zim Jun 04 '21 at 00:07
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    I'm not looking for opinion-based answers. As stated in the question, I do believe it's answerable. Perhaps what you're getting at is whether it's a problem that needs solving. From what I gather, in your opinion, it is not a problem, and it does not need solving. – undrline - Reinstate Monica Jul 18 '21 at 21:49

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More testing is obviously required before this directly answers the question. Without more testing, this answer is incomplete at best.

(YMMV) - Advice for initially setting usernames when installing Windows 10
Anytime you create a new user on a PC, I think you should use a local account first, which sets the user's folder structure name, as in the C:\Users\[localAccount] folder. Then, if you really want to log in with, and attach a Microsoft registered email address to your PC login, it won't change your folder structure.

Since some email addresses would be extremely long, using that for the username which becomes the root folder for the currently logged in user would cause difficulty for programs and users. Often, logs are produced that would then contain that user's email address. These logs often are sent or posted by the user, which would publish that user's email address.

DaaBoss
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    That's not the problem. I have a real Windows username for the live account like `someuser` which is completely irrelevant to the live email address, but after I sign in into other computers it'll be truncated to `someu` – phuclv Nov 23 '16 at 16:29
  • I also want to add that potentially the `@` symbol could have multiple meanings aside from it's apparent character, leading to issues with folder names. As far as I remember, folder names cannot contain that particular special character. – nightsurfer Nov 23 '16 at 16:31
  • @Kaizerwolf `@` is not a forbidden character in filenames – phuclv Apr 19 '17 at 15:39
  • lol, it's funny when I come back to something and want to upvote it again. Like @LưuVĩnhPhúc pointed out, this doesn't answer the problem I posed: why is the truncation taking place and why the arbitrary length? People have argued that the email construct has nothing to do with it. Even if it was a length issue, why _davka_ this length? – undrline - Reinstate Monica Jun 02 '17 at 16:57
  • Clearly, there's more to this than it appears.... I'd like to improve my answer, but I was unaware of many of the issues here, let alone why Microsoft did what they did. My answer was also trying to add something useful to the advice users should use when installing Windows. My testing so far is too anecdotal and limited. However, I will start creating accounts under different scenarios to better understand. Adding to your question, asking for more outside resources to shed some light on the subject might also help. – DaaBoss Jun 05 '17 at 13:22