Re: Getting rid of previous owners name on XP

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GrantZ wrote:
My brother-in-law just gave me his "old" Dell Inspiron 8200 running Windows XP Home. I would like to get rid of his name on all the system files and replace it with my own.

Is there and easy way to do this?

In particular, when I attempt to rename "C:\\Documents and Settings\His Name\...

to C:\\Doucments and Settings\My Name...

I am told that this is a System file and cannot be renamed.

What can I do here?

Thanks


With second-hand computers, especially if acquired from strangers but perhaps even if acquired from a family member or friend, your wisest course of action would definitely be to format the hard drives and start fresh. You don't want to get in trouble because the original owner may have filled the hard drive with kiddie porn, or have problems because the original owner downloaded/installed viruses or other malware.

To fix the "Registered to" information for WinNT/2K/XP, you can use Start > Run > Regedit.exe to edit:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\RegisteredOwner

and:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current
Version\RegisteredOrganization

How this will affect the name displayed in previously installed applications will vary depending upon each individual program; some read the registered owner information dynamically, while others read it only during installation.

The user profile folders (C:\Documents and Settings\Username) _cannot_ be renamed, even if the associated user account has been. So, your best course of action would be to log on using the built-in Administrator account, create a new user account, with the username desired. You can then delete the old user account(s).

HOW TO Create and Configure User Accounts in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;279783

How to Copy User Data to a New User Profile
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;811151


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