It depends on whether you need to change the user's display name or only the logon name. If it's just the user's name (i.e., full name or display name), then I would change them now under WinNT. If you need to change the user's logon ID, it is much easier to change those in Win2K with AD than it is with NT. In that case, I would recommend converting with the old user names. In either case, devise a specific "protocol" for naming users that you will carry through with all new and old users. In Win2K, if you need to change the display name (that is, the users full name and/or alias), you can change the existing user names simply by right-clicking on the name in the AD Users list and choosing "Rename." If it's the user's logon ID that you need to change, then you can change that by editing the properties of the users and changing the Win2K logon ID.
As for the profile issue, what I would recommend is going to roaming profiles. If you go to roaming profiles, then the user's profiles are stored on the server rather than on each individual's workstation. It's a little bit of work to set up, but once you have it set up and working properly it saves a LOT of time during conversion and it ensures that users won't lose their profile information even if their workstation crashes. You can find info on how to set up roaming profiles by going to www.microsoft.com/support, selecting Windows NT Server for your lookup and searching for "roaming profiles".
Hope this helps!
