Renaming a computer

[Dichotomy]

When you fire up a computer for the first time you name it.  How do you go about renaming it without losing anything?  Simply put a friend of mine got a used computer a couple of months ago and used it to do a presentation at work.  Apparently the original owner had a sense of humor and named it dumbprettythang.  Subsequently when my friend fired up his presentation he... well you get the point.  Anybody know how to fix this little problem? It's worth free beer for me if I can figure it out.

[Mustaine]

Don't know where a computer name would show in normal workings...

but in 2000/XP right click My Computer, choose properties, tab called "Computer Name".


Are you talking about a username? Then just move all data to a root space like "C:\Stuff" then create a new user / delete the old user.

[BaldEagl]

Control panal, Network, Identification.  Change it to whatever you like.

[Fulmar]

Control panal, Network, Identification.  Change it to whatever you like.

Should be (XP):
Control Panel -> System -> Computer Name Tab -> Change button

[BaldEagl]

Should be (XP):
Control Panel -> System -> Computer Name Tab -> Change button

Was on my old Win98 system hoping it would be the same 

[Dichotomy]

Did that for him however under users it still has the folder for the original name in documents and settings

[Mustaine]

So you are talking about a user, not a computer name...

as long as you created the new user with administrator rights you should be able to delete the old folder.


worst case, boot in safe mode, on the welcome screen hit ctrl-alt-del and manually log in as administrator (you'll need the admin password if there was one set) and you can do whatever you need to the file system.

[Fulmar]

Did that for him however under users it still has the folder for the original name in documents and settings

Ah, so it's the Windows Login User Account.  I'm not sure if this works/renames the folders (you may have to rename it yourself).  I have never tried this so do it at your own risk...

Control Panel -> User Accounts - > Advanced Tab (at top) -> Advanced Button - > Click on Users - > Right click on Account and rename

[Fulmar]

Or just as Mustaine said.  Create a new account (if you have admin login rights) and delete the old user account.

[Dichotomy]

thanks gents... if I can't get it straightened out I'll just rip and rebuild