In our household, we have 2 laptops and a desktop, all currently on Windows 8.1.

The desktop has been upgraded in stages from Windows 7. Laptop 1 was bought with Windows 8 and has now been upgraded. Laptop 2 is new and came with Windows 8.1.

We've been trying to set up a HomeGroup such that we have one user on laptop 1, one on laptop 2 and both can log into the desktop, with each user able to edit their files on their laptop and desktop, while the other user has read-only access.

And we now have that situation ... except ... because the user on laptop 1 was created in Windows 8 but the same user on the desktop was created in 8.1, they have different names in Windows Explorer (say, firstuser and first_000). Likewise, the other use was created on laptop 2 in Windows 8.1 and on the desktop in Windows 7 (so let's say secon_000 and seconduser).

This is ultimately confusing. Now if we expand the HomeGroup, we get four users (firstuser, first_000, seconduser and secon_000) and each has a single computer inside it.

What I'd like to see is firstuser => laptop1, desktop and seconduser => laptop2, desktop.

An acceptable alternative is first_000 => laptop1, desktop and secon_000 => laptop2, desktop.

But what I don't want to have to do is delete firstuser and seconduser and rebuild them. Is there a better way?