Vista - Change name from hANK to Hank?

During installation of vista business, I slipped.

The error proliferates everywhere, and though only
annoying I'd like to fix it.

Can it be done?

Hi Hank,

the answer is Yes and No in the users control you can change the display name that is shown at login and on start menu etc but this does not change the actual name of the user folder c:\users\hANK .... etc.

Under earlier win versions [2000, xp] you could make a new account and then copy the user profile to the new account and then delete the original .

Profiles are available in Vista [in the user account screen under Advanced user profile properties] but not sure if the functionality is still active.

you may want to create the new account and login once to create the structure and profile then log back into the hANK account and see if you can copy the profile to the new user [ am running Home premium here so not sure if business has the option or not]

Regedit - no problem.

However, C > Users > hANK I get no "Rename" opportunity.
I unchecked 'read only' for folder and contents, but
it's still unchangeable.

???

Hank wrote:Get in the habit of replying thusly:

Name: Your Name Here
Company: Your Company Name Here

Nobody wants to know your name anyway.

hank,

As I said in my original post the new user option will not change the file path in the Users directory this could be done manually but would be a major undertaking that would probably take many times longer than a complete reinstall
Unfortunately, due to the way that windows works on install [not just Vista] the only way to ensure that all hENK entries are removed would be a complete fresh re-install

If you need to change the registration details this may be done by editing the registry entry in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer....
The hENK entry should be in an entry called RegOwner
if you open Regedit.exe and do an Edit Find for RegOwner you should be able to change this to the correct item.

This will change the name used when installing new applications but would not change that used by those previously installed.

Make sure you are confident in editing the registry, and have backed up the original registry, before you start as obviously changing the wrong item can really screw up your system.

What I would do personally is create a new User [Henk] with the correct name [As an Administrator ] then manually transfer all the files etc to this new user.

when happy that the new user is working correctly I would delete the old user with the option to retain the user files. after this I would Search the registry and replace all entries of hENK with Henk but only those which DO NOT relate to file paths.

I feel confident enough with the registry editor to do this but not everyone will

if you just create the new user and do the RegOwner change as stated then that should be enough for the day to day operation.

Hope this explains the situation and sorry I could not give you a one click solution.

unfortunately only you can decide if the anoyance caused by this justifies the effort required for a soulution

Thank you.
This is one of those mistakes - like a bad marriage -
that has long term consequences. On the other hand,
perhaps I can just live with it...


barman58 wrote:

Hank wrote:This won't last forever. Wait for Windows 7 <grin>

Bill

Bill, I would agree but I'm afraid that the the same people who wrote 95, 98, 2000, XP, and Vista are going to be writing 7. We'll all moan and say "I want my Vista back" then we'll realize we chose to install and learn to live with it. .

PS I Now i missed out ME but that is something I try not to remember