I'm trying to figure out what determines the username in the C:usersXXXX path for an Entra user account (which doesn't have an on-premise counterpart) when using Autopilot devices. We have been encountering issues where special characters in usernames are causing problems with some applications like Visual Studio. Initially, I thought the username was formed by concatenating the 'first name' and 'last name' attributes, so we removed special characters from those fields while leaving them in their display name. However, some devices still seem to autopilot with those special characters included, suggesting that the 'Display Name' might be used in some cases as well. Is it clear whether the username comes strictly from the first and last name attributes, or could it be something else? Are there any other attributes that might still carry the special characters even after renaming the accounts?
3 Answers
Here's a tip: the profile name sometimes gets generated from the display name during the first logon. If you change the display name, reboot the PC, and log back in, you might see different behavior. Just be mindful—removing special characters everywhere might be your safest bet to avoid further headaches!
It looks like the username is typically derived from the part before the @ in the user principal name (UPN) for Entra users. However, I get where you're coming from—it can be confusing if you thought the display name would always be pulled. Double-checking is definitely a good idea, because if there are no special characters in the UPN, it shouldn't be causing issues on that front.
If you're dealing with a hybrid identity, generally, it should use the UPN format like DOMAIN/first.lastname. For fully cloud-based setups, the profile name often appears as AzureAD/NameLastname. The display name used here can include any special characters, which might explain your inconsistencies with special character visibility in user profiles.
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