Changing owner name

  • Thread starter Thread starter Neil Harrington
  • Start date Start date
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Neil Harrington

I am going to give my laptop (WinXP Home, SP2) to my great-niece for
Christmas. How do I change the "Registered to:" name, and any other possible
identifying information, from my name to hers? (I'm pretty sure I never
registered this system with Microsoft, if that matters.)
 
For many reasons your best bet would be to do a clean install and use her
name when you reinstall. For one reason, it'll make it look less "used".

Clean Install Windows
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

Windows XP Clean Installation - Partitioning and Formatting using Windows XP
CD
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/XPClean.htm

HOW TO Partition and Format a Hard Disk in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313348

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
Neil said:
I am going to give my laptop (WinXP Home, SP2) to my great-niece for
Christmas. How do I change the "Registered to:" name, and any other
possible identifying information, from my name to hers? (I'm pretty
sure I never registered this system with Microsoft, if that matters.)
Click to expand...

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_change_owner.htm - Change the
registered owner/company

Make her a new user account and delete yours after you are sure you have
all your data.

Make sure you give her all the software that came with the laptop, too.

Malke
 
Two ways:

1. Download Tweak Manager from www.winguides.com and change it from there
2. Modify Registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

And modify Values RegisteredOwner and RegisteredOrganization
 
From: "Wesley Vogel" <[email protected]>

| For many reasons your best bet would be to do a clean install and use her
| name when you reinstall. For one reason, it'll make it look less "used".
|
| Clean Install Windows
| http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
|
| Windows XP Clean Installation - Partitioning and Formatting using Windows XP
| CD
| http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/XPClean.htm
|
| HOW TO Partition and Format a Hard Disk in Windows XP
| http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313348
|

I'm in 100% agreement.
 
Neil

Some thoughts to get you started.

How to Change Name and Company Information After You Install Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310441

Create a new User Profile and delete your own
How to copy data from a corrupted user profile to a new profile
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151

Remove passwords:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/StoredPasswords.htm

Create new Identity in Outlook Express and delete existing one
File, Identities in Outlook Express. You will also need to remove
personal information in Tools, Accounts, Properties, General and Servers
tab.

Remove passwords:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/StoredPasswords.htm

Most programmes will also have a Registered Owner e.g. Microsoft Office.
You will have to uninstall if they are not to be part of the gift or change.
Remember to pass on the disks for donated programmes.

Try Start, All Programmes, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp to
Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files. Delete all
but the most recent Restore Point ( Start, Programs, Accessories, System
Tools, Disk Cleanup, More options). Run Disk Defragmenter in Safe Mode.

I would suggest you try cCleaner.
http://www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp
http://www.ccleaner.com/

With any cleaner you need to proceed with caution. I invariably
recommend creating a restore point before using cCleaner.
cCleaner also offers backup before removal.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Neil said:
I am going to give my laptop (WinXP Home, SP2) to my great-niece for
Christmas. How do I change the "Registered to:" name, and any other possible
identifying information, from my name to hers? (I'm pretty sure I never
registered this system with Microsoft, if that matters.)
Click to expand...

I recommend you do a clean install of the OS at the SP2 level and
install all the post SP2 updates from windows update. This will remove
your data and give her a clean system to start with. For a legit
transfer the XP OS disk with COA needs to go with it.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
 
Rock said:
I recommend you do a clean install of the OS at the SP2 level and install
all the post SP2 updates from windows update. This will remove your data
and give her a clean system to start with. For a legit transfer the XP OS
disk with COA needs to go with it.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
Click to expand...

In this case (as probably with most laptops) it came with a Recovery disc,
not the full OS disc. I have never used one of these things before, but my
understanding is it is supposed to wipe everything on the HDD and install
the OS and other software so that it's just as it came from Toshiba in the
first place. So I guess I will do that, then install SP2 since that came
along after this laptop was put together (nearly three years ago).

Anything I need to know before doing this? I'm assuming it will be pretty
self-explanatory once I start the Recovery process, but as I say I've never
used one before.

Neil
 
Neil said:
I am going to give my laptop (WinXP Home, SP2) to my great-niece for
Christmas. How do I change the "Registered to:" name, and any other possible
identifying information, from my name to hers? (I'm pretty sure I never
registered this system with Microsoft, if that matters.)
Click to expand...


To protect your personal information and data from any future users
of average skills, you should, at the very least, format the hard drive.
If you wish to do a more thorough job of protecting your friend's
personal data, WipeDrive
(http://www.whitecanyon.com/wipedrive-erase-hard-drive.php) meets U.S.
DoD standards for securely cleaning surplus unclassified hard drives,
and could be used before formatting and reinstalling the OS and
applications.

In your specific case, a simple format and clean installation
should be sufficient. Simply boot from the WinXP installation CD.
You'll be offered the opportunity to delete, create, and format
partitions as part of the installation process. (You may need to
re-arrange the order of boot devices in the PC's BIOS to boot from the CD.)

HOW TO Install Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;316941

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

However, to answer your question:

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


--

Bruce Chambers

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safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell
 
Thanks very much to all who provided many helpful answers.

After saving everything I wanted to keep, I used the Recovery CD that came
with the laptop to format and reinstall Windows XP clean. After your
recommendations and thinking about it, I was convinced that that's much
better than merely changing the owner name per my original question.

Thanks again,

Neil Harrington
 
In this case (as probably with most laptops) it came with a Recovery disc,
not the full OS disc. I have never used one of these things before, but my
understanding is it is supposed to wipe everything on the HDD and install
the OS and other software so that it's just as it came from Toshiba in the
first place. So I guess I will do that, then install SP2 since that came
along after this laptop was put together (nearly three years ago).

Anything I need to know before doing this? I'm assuming it will be pretty
self-explanatory once I start the Recovery process, but as I say I've
never used one before.
Click to expand...

Yes, it should have the drivers on it too, so that would be a good way to go
about what you want.
 
Thanks very much to all who provided many helpful answers.

After saving everything I wanted to keep, I used the Recovery CD that came
with the laptop to format and reinstall Windows XP clean. After your
recommendations and thinking about it, I was convinced that that's much
better than merely changing the owner name per my original question.
Click to expand...


Great, Neil, glad we could help out and thanks for posting back.
 
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