Changing account info in Windows XP

[Nebuul]

I bought myself a computer some time ago (really more than a year ago). It
has Windows XP (home) installed and would like to change the account used to
log in to it. It is basically the administration account as far as I
understand or the one created when installing windows. Since the computer
was one that is bought through the company I work at (basically that is the company buys it, then the employer lease it thorugh them and get a tax deduction on the price based on income tax, ends up really cheap in most cases), they installed windows in the shop BUT, they happened to use my
name for the account. I really don't like that and want to change it (it seems I can't just create a new admin acount and delete the old one either). So
basically, the account has my name, and for example the folder in "document
and settings" has my name. I can of course change the login name of the
account, but that will not change folder names and such. Basically I want to
remove references to my name in folders and various settings. In addition,
they also used the company's name in various places as the "company" that
one can fill in upon installation. I note that when I installed my own copy
of MS office since it already filled in suggested name and company info upon
installation. So I would also like to change such information about the user
from the account. Since it is a private computer with no relation to the
company, I don't like the company's name to appear in for example documents
or other places. So, anyone has some help, hints or ideas on how to make
such a change as I want safe from reinstalling everything?
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If you want to remove references to yours and the companies name, it's a little involved but definitely possible.

First, do what the previous poster said and make a new account with the name you want. Be sure this account has full admin privledges, or you can make it a user account and just sign on with "admin" account to do what comes next.

Ok second, sign on with the account you don't like. Make a new folder on your c:\ drive called "backup" or something. Copy all your files out of my documents and what not into that folder.

Ok now log off that account and log into another admin account (either administrator or the new account you made if it is an admin). Go to control panel -> user accounts. Choose the account you want gone and delete it.

Now you have to cleanse the computer of references to that name and the company name. The first step is a file search. Go to start -> search (for files and folders). In the blank you should put JohnDoe*.* where johndoe is the username you want gone. Assuming you backed up everything important, delete anything it finds. Now you have to clear out your registry. Same deal -- go to start -> run and type regedit. First make a backup of your registry :) Very important step! Then after you back it up, just use edit or view->find (don't remember which menu it is under) and do a search for that username. Delete any hits you get -- if you feel uncomfortable deleting the keys, you can just edit the value of them and make them null ( "" instead of "johndoe" ). Repeat the search again for your company name, and this time be sure you edit the files to the new name you want to use for those registrations.


Ok, some files will have seperate registration stuff outside of the registry. For those, you can do a file content search (start -> search) for the company name and then replace it as you want, but you might just see if what you did already fixes things ok for you.


Hope that helps


Nebuul