[Drakon]

Ok, I messed up while reinstalling windows. When it asked for a pc name, I put my nick name instead. So when time came for me to choose a name for my admin profile, I couldn't use "drak0n" because it was used before Well I would like to change my admin profile name, but I can't seem to figure how to do so. Does anyone know?

[Razgriz]

start -> control panel -> user accounts

or, if you want to change your computer name start -> control panel -> system -> computer name. Look where it says "to rename this computer, or change the domain click change. From there you can rename your computer.


Hope thats what you were looking for

[Drakon]

Originally Posted by Razgriz

start -> control panel -> user accounts

or, if you want to change your computer name start -> control panel -> system -> computer name. Look where it says "to rename this computer, or change the domain click change. From there you can rename your computer.


Hope thats what you were looking for

Well I changed the computer name already. Changing the Admin Login Name through User Accounts only affects the Welcome Screen and Start Menu. Throughout Windows the Admin name is still the same one I choose at install.

[Razgriz]

maybe there is a registry setting? ill do some research tonight

[kodiak]

This would be what your looking for. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Cu rrent Version then click on current version and in the right pain change the name to the correct name.

[Tipstaff]

Only thing I can think of at the moment would be to create another user with admin rights (specifically part of the Administrators Group), and then login using that new user to rename the other account. Of note, if you created a user during installation, and are using XP Pro (Home users don't have this problem), you will infact have 2 user accounts: Administrator, and the user you created. If you are using XP Pro you can use that account to login, and do the changes. Also, changing the name in User Accounts will only change the displayed name, not the name of the actual account. For that you will have to go into Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Local Users and Groups, Users, and on the right pane right-click the name you want to change, and select rename.

Now for the downside. If you do this and do not delete the user folder inside the "Documents and Settings" folder the name of the folder will remain the same. The best thing to do is switch to a user with admin rights, rename the other users under both User Accounts and Computer Managment, and delete the older user folder inside Documents and Settings folder. Note: this will delete all settings concerning that user since it's profile is saved in there. Then, log out, and log in using the new user name. This will create a new user folder under the new name.

BTW, a note to all XP Pro users: like I said before, if you are using XP Pro, and created a user during installation you will still have an Administrator account alive, and kicking along with any other accounts you create.. you just won't see it. This is technically a backdoor for hackers. My advice would be to go into Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Local Users and Groups, Users, and password protect that account. DO NOT DISABLE OR DELETE IT! The Admin account can be very handy if you screw something up with the other user/s. So, again, best thing is to put a password on it (something you will remember), and leave it be until needed.

[Drakon]

Well I log in as an Admin, so do I still have to create another Admin account or can I just go ahead and change it in Adminstrative Tools?

[kodiak]

Why not just change the reg key as mentioned above?

[Tipstaff]

Originally Posted by kodiak

Why not just change the reg key as mentioned above?

The reg key you listed will allow you to change the "Registered Organization" and the "Registered User", but in this case Drakon is looking to change not only the name of the user he uses, but also anything tied to it like folders, user listings, and what not.

Originally Posted by Drakon

Well I log in as an Admin, so do I still have to create another Admin account or can I just go ahead and change it in Adminstrative Tools?

As long as you are signed in as an Admin you can go ahead and change the name in Admin Tools. You can even be logged in as the user you want to change. The next time you log in though you will have to use the new name. The only time you need to use a seperate user would be if you wanted to delete the older user folder in Documents and Settings. When you log on with the renamed user it creates a new folder based on that name. Like I mentioned though, the only downside to this is that you will lose the settings that profile had. Not so if you simply change the users name since it will still use the older folder.