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Yesterday, I installed Windows 10 Preview Build 14379. I had a few problems with my applications that I was running, so I rolled back to Build 14372 from Settings > Update and Security > Recovery.

However, I have noticed that my system folder is no longer named "Windows", but "WINDOWS" in all caps. I cannot rename it. I would like to rename it to just "Windows" Is that possible?

I have attached a screenshot of the structure of C:\

File explorer showing system drive

magicandre1981
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lolidk420
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  • Why? [What actual problem are you trying to solve?](https://superuser.com/help/dont-ask) (Even if it's purely cosmetic.) Knowing why you want to do this is likely to help us come up with an answer that works for you. – user Jul 02 '16 at 22:24
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    yeah it is cosmetic that is why – lolidk420 Jul 02 '16 at 22:35
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    NTFS file names are case-insensitive, so it would probably be okay, although you should probably leave it alone. – stmbgr1 Jul 02 '16 at 22:10
  • Meh, caring too much about a thing that doesn't matter. What happens if you fail will be intensely funny and inconvenient. BTDT, on a different Windows issue, tee shirt wasn't that good. – Fiasco Labs Jul 03 '16 at 19:30
  • Lol it would be pretty funny if I failed doing that. But thanks to the answers below, I didn't. – lolidk420 Jul 03 '16 at 23:50
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    @stmbgr1: That's actually incorrect. Win32 (and Win16 and DOS) file/directory names are case-insensitive. NTFS supports operating in either case-sensitive or case-insensitive ways, and in either case preserves case. The support for case-sensitivity is used in the (old) Unix and (new) Linux subsystems built on NT. Windows programs tend to be really bad at handling things that the Windows (Win32) APIs don't support, like filenames differing only by case (or ending with a `.`, or containing certain characters), but NTFS can store them (and interact with them) if you know how to ask. – CBHacking Apr 15 '17 at 20:45

2 Answers2

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Option 1: Get into Recovery options Command Prompt and rename the Windows directory by running ren D:\WINDOWS Windows. (Ref: Booting into Windows RE)

Note that the Windows installation drive would be different when seen from WinRE. If Windows is installed in C:\ then it would appear as D:\ when in WinRE.

Option 2:

Open Notepad (as Administrator), copy the following lines:

[.ShellClassInfo]
LocalizedResourceName=Windows

Save the file in "C:\Windows" directory, as desktop.ini

Then from an Admin Command Prompt run:

attrib +r C:\Windows

That should do it!

w32sh
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  • Thanks, I'll be sure to try that! I'll mark it as solved if that works for me – lolidk420 Jul 03 '16 at 19:05
  • Yes. The second option worked for me. I didn't attempt the first one because the second one I could do without rebooting. One question, can I delete the desktop.ini file now? – lolidk420 Jul 03 '16 at 23:51
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    No. The `desktop.ini` file only changes the display in the Windows Shell (explorer.exe, common file dialogs, etc.) but doesn't change anything on the filesystem itself. – conio Jul 04 '16 at 00:17
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    Desktop.ini just changes the display name (cosmetic thing), whereas the 1st method renames the folder actually. The desktop.ini has to be there if you want Explorer to show the customized name. – w32sh Jul 04 '16 at 03:49
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On Windows, due to filesystems being case insensitive, renaming a file by just changing uppercases to lowercases is seen as a no-op. You need to change something more using a first rename and rename again to your wanted name.

A. Loiseau
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    It's not quite right. Windows allows renaming files and folders where you change the case only. The problem here is that you can't rename `WINDOWS` folder because it's always used by the operating system. – Alexey Ivanov Jul 04 '16 at 08:14