Hurrah .. Problems of old machine cured .. I bought a new one BUT..

Hello all again,
I have just purchased a new XP home 80Gbyte,
512 RAM,
3.6GHtz chip.
The chap who sold it to me has my full name on it as registered owner and I feel a bit conscious about my name springing up all the time.
Can I change it to just "Jim" rather than (say) "Jim Gates, son of Bill"??
Thanks.
My stars, it's been a long time since I've had anything this flash and with a 19" LCD screen .. it's fabulous

 

Thanks Chums,
Helpful and prompt but a bit scared of altering registry values on a new machine as I have to tell the Shop I bought it from that the green light on the "A" drive stays on and the drive doesn't work.
I couldn't find an easy change in the "X-Setup" but'll try later after the FDD issue is addressed.
Good on ya fellahs,
JS.

 

The floppy drive cable is on, upside down.

 

theefool, he is right, if you feel you can do it, just unplug the wide cable from the floppy and turn it over, push back on, very common mistake. ed

 

Okiedokie TimW, will set about name change later today (ce soir).
The chap from the Putey shop has just been and inverted the lead to the FDD and it's 'cured' I didn't want to do any work inside the box since it's a new machine and I don't want to void any warranties just yet.
Thanks Tuner Red and Theef-ool.
( I've been to Munster In and Toledo in the Buckeye State )

 

Thanks TimW, I did as you said and changed registered owner but my name still comes up everywhere else. I rebooted. Any more snazzy tricks like the last one? I get s' nervous and when everything happens as it should, it's a delight.
Cheers,
JS.

 

OK TimW, I have the User Accounts up and 'Jimmy' is there though 'JimGates Wa' is still showing in Task Manager as above.
If I create a new account will all rights under the name, say, 'Jim2', and delete 'Jimmy', will my machine still work?
Thanks.

 

You might also want to use the Search feature to search ALL files for the text string "Jim Gates" (or, more correctly, your actual user name); you'll be amazed how many places your user name is stored...

Anyway, try to change ALL of those entries to the name you prefer, such as Jim Gates, Gil Bates, Ferris Bueller, or whatever...

If Windows starts coughing up furballs with any particular file, just skip it and move on to the next one. With any luck, you'll find the one that matters most, and get it changed to suit you.

Keep us posted...

EDIT: Just saw your last post (which you sent while I was still typing this); I would suggest that you try my method first. As much as I hate to say this, I don't trust Windows not to screw everything up and cause a LOT of problems if you make those changes. It SHOULDN'T be a problem, but then again...

 

Hi MK, I did a search of "C" drive and this is all that came up and when I tried to rename it, .. well the picture tells it all.
No big drama o'course, just something I'd like to tidy up.
Thanks.
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=41753&stc=1&d=1156776979

 

OK, so Micr$oft wants to play rough...

I KNOW there are some programs that could help you do this, but right now, I'm dealing with a migraine, and I can't remember what programs will do this for you. IIRC, there is at least one program that you install and run within Windows. You set it to make the changes, then reboot, and it works before Windows ever loads, so Windows can't block it.

Of course, there is always the chance that such a change will "break" your Windows installation, but if you're willing to do some research, you might find the right program for the job.

OTOH, if you make good notes about which files and folders have the name you want to change, you could probably use Knoppix (which will now read and write to NTFS partitions) to make the changes. You'd have to do this one file / folder at a time, but it could be a great learning experience. Better yet, Knoppix is available as a "Live" CD (which loads and works entirely in RAM at bootup), so you WON'T have to load Linux onto your harddrive. Just download the .ISO and burn the image to a CD-R, then boot from the CD-R and you'll be off and running.

See this link for some more information on how this might be possible using Knoppix:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1918387,00.asp

Let us know your thoughts on this; now, I have ANOTHER reason to despise Windows. I first started playing with Linux back in 1999, and though fixing problems with Windows pays my mortgage, my home network is dominated by Linux-only machines. I DO keep a few Windows systems here, but only one is ever booted up at any time (I'm using a Win2k rig right now); I use Windows to generate income, I use Linux because my inner geek tells me that it is a better OS in every way...

 

Tim, Mal,
The important parts from the MS site suggested by Tim:
..."...MORE INFORMATION
In Windows XP Home Edition, you cannot change the actual name of a user account, ..."...
Oh well. Just hope my anonymity is not compromised too much and I don't get kidnapped by someone who thinks I've got a rich Dad.
Thanks for your help fellahs.
JS

 

Thanks Tim but I think I'll leave it as it is .. maybe fiddle with it a bit next year when the machine isn't so brand-new.
Cheers,
JS.