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Changing AD Account Names

Our domain includes a lot of users who have account names with spaces, e.g. 'Fred Bloggs'.

We need to change this format so that is complies with standards which exclude the use of spaces.

When we change the user account name, will this create a brand new profile on the computer and as such all program configurations will need to be re-configured? I'm also thinking that it would break ActiveSync and roaming profiles would also need to be updated?
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Sandesh Dubey
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None of the above.

The roaming profile path is specified as an Active Directory property, and is unrelated to username.

For example, my username could be cliff.galiher, and my profile path could be
\\somecomputer\share\profiles\cgaliher

Changing my username would not change my profile path, nor my SID, so logging in will still pull the profile from the path specified and load as expected.

ActiveSync associates with an account based on primary SMTP address, and that already should be without spaces (as SMTP has never allowed this), and would continue to work. Exchange objects are secured by SID as well, so syncing would continue.

If you change the primary SMTP address then you may need to reconfigure the device and initiate a new sync, but no other changes should be required.

-Cliff
The above is applicable if the user logon name is also changed.If only the display name is changed then it should not be an issue.
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If I change the account name used for logging on e.g. Fred Bloggs to Fred.Bloggs won't this create a new profile on the workstation as its interpreted as a new account there?
Or are you saying that when an account is created and you have a SID defined, regardless if what you change from that point onwards, e.g. Display name, account login name etc then the SID remains constant and even on the persons PC when using a new login name, no new profile is created?

I'm sure I tried this with a test account previously and when changing FredB to Fred.bloggs the users PC created a new profile alongside FredB?
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First how did you create a user name with a space? What version of windows? you can create a display name with a space but Windows AD should allow spaces in the user name.
As suggested earlier it will not load new profile If  you change the account name used for logging on e.g. Fred Bloggs to Fred.Bloggs. You need to cross check  below parameter as same needs to be taken care.
 1) logon script
 2) user home folder
 3) User profile path (roaming/folder redirection).etc.