Administrator name vs. User name in Vista

U

Uzidengineer

A new Dell Studio 540S, Vista Home premium.
It was a "demo" at Staples.
They said they will restore it to its original state.

But.
While the Administrator (control panel, user accounts)
shows my correct name (as the administrator)
AND there is no other account except disabled guest.

Staples shows up, though, in another "key" place - C:\Users.
Specifically, under users C:\Users I see three (3):
Guest, Public and Staples.
I'll like to change the Staples folder name to mine.
Any advise?
 
P

Patrick Keenan

Uzidengineer said:
A new Dell Studio 540S, Vista Home premium.
It was a "demo" at Staples.
They said they will restore it to its original state.

But. While the Administrator (control panel, user accounts)
shows my correct name (as the administrator)
AND there is no other account except disabled guest.

Staples shows up, though, in another "key" place - C:\Users.
Specifically, under users C:\Users I see three (3): Guest, Public and
Staples.
I'll like to change the Staples folder name to mine.
Any advise?

Yes, don't do that. Instead, create a new account for yourself, migrate
anything you want to keep, then delete the "staples" acccount.

I think you'll find that even if you change the displayed account name to
your own, folder names will not change. This can lead to confusion.

By default, the Vista Administrator account is disabled for security
reasons. You can turn it on, but you need to be in another Administrator
account to do so.

Please don't multi-post. Cross-post, instead.

HTH
-pk
 
B

Bruce Chambers

Uzidengineer said:
A new Dell Studio 540S, Vista Home premium.
It was a "demo" at Staples.
They said they will restore it to its original state.

Which they clearly failed to do....

But. While the Administrator (control panel, user accounts)
shows my correct name (as the administrator)
AND there is no other account except disabled guest.

Staples shows up, though, in another "key" place - C:\Users.
Specifically, under users C:\Users I see three (3): Guest, Public and
Staples.
I'll like to change the Staples folder name to mine.
Any advise?


With second-hand computers (among which one would certainly have to
include a store demo unit), 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/Vista, 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.

However, the user profile folders (C:\Users\Username) _cannot_ be
renamed, without risky registry editing, even if the associated user
account has been. So, if you don't really want to restore the machine
to its original, ex-factory state, 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. Once you've logged in using this
new account (and transfered any data you need to preserve, you can then
delete the old user account(s).


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot
 
L

Lorin

Nobody knows what multi-post or cross-post means since most people cannot
do cross posting.
Neither are in my dictionary.
 
S

Synapse Syndrome

Bruce Chambers said:
You don't want to get in trouble because the original owner may have
filled the hard drive with kiddie porn,

Do you find it quite common for people you know to be paedophiles, Bruce?

ss.
 
S

Synapse Syndrome

Lorin said:
Nobody knows what multi-post or cross-post means since most people
cannot do cross posting.
Neither are in my dictionary.


You cannot expect anything but the most common computer jargon to be in a
general dictionary. It's the same for any such argot. You will have more
luck with Wikipedia.

ss.
 
G

Gordon

Synapse Syndrome said:
You cannot expect anything but the most common computer jargon to be in a
general dictionary. It's the same for any such argot. You will have more
luck with Wikipedia.


Oxford Dictionary of English (revised in 2005) has the definition of
"cross-posting" in it...
 
S

Synapse Syndrome

Gordon said:
Oxford Dictionary of English (revised in 2005) has the definition of
"cross-posting" in it...

Well, it's not in my OED, but it is the 1992 edition.

It's not on my WordWeb dictionary either, which is what I tend to use a lot
more these days, as it is a lot quicker.

www.wordweb.info

ss.
 
K

Ken Blake, MVP

Nobody knows what multi-post or cross-post means since most people cannot
do cross posting.
Neither are in my dictionary.



If you don't understand, here's my standard post on the subject, which
explains the difference:

Please do not send the same message separately to more than one
newsgroup (called multiposting). Doing so just fragments the thread,
so someone who answers in one newsgroup doesn't get to see answers
from others in another newsgroup. And for those who read all the
newsgroups the message is multiposted to, they see the message
multiple times instead of once (they would see it only once if you
correctly crossposted instead). This wastes everyone's time, and gets
you poorer help than you should get.

If you must send the same message to more than one newsgroup, please
do so by crossposting -- sending a single message simultaneously to
multiple newsgroups (but only to a *few* related newsgroups).

Please see "Multiposting vs Crossposting" at
http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm
 

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