Safely change home directory

Question

I\'m trying to safely update the home directory as specified in /etc/passwd, but the standard Linux utils - usermod and vipw - for doing so aren\'t provided by

Answer 1

Using Windows Environment Variable: HOME

This works for me for a permanent, non-portable, non-network solution; i.e. setting the HOME Environment variable permanently in Windows.

Note that this doesn't affect ssh or telnet sessions which always refer to /etc/passwd

ref: Setting up Cygwin- My HOME environment variable is not what I want.

CMD

For current user (needs to run once per user)::

reg add HKCU\Environment /v HOME /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d ^%USERPROFILE^%

For new Users:

reg add HKU\.DEFAULT\Environment /v HOME /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d ^%USERPROFILE^%

Note: Carets ^ before percent-signs %

IMPORT REG FILE

Import this reg file (current user):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment]
"HOME"=hex(2):25,00,55,00,53,00,45,00,52,00,50,00,52,00,4f,00,46,00,49,00,4c,\
  00,45,00,25,00,00,00

For new users:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKU\.DEFAULT\Environment]
"HOME"=hex(2):25,00,55,00,53,00,45,00,52,00,50,00,52,00,4f,00,46,00,49,00,4c,\
  00,45,00,25,00,00,00

REGEDIT

In Regedit, under:

For current user:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment

For new Users:

HKU\.DEFAULT\Environment

Create HOME as a new Expandable String Value (*REG_EXPAND_SZ*) and put in %USERPROFILE%