Name Change on newly aquired laptop

[RDelcampo]

Hi. I recently aquired a laptop from a friend as form of payment for money
she owed me. I have been able to change the name to appear as mine in most
files but it still appears as ....rdelcampo/hernamehere.

How can I make sure I delete all of her info off the computer without
deleteing any programs or files that I have already saved? Also, please note
that she created a user account and this is what I have been doing all of my
work under.

If I delete her User profile and save the file to the desktop will my
documents still show everything I have worked on?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Kerry Brown]

It is highly recommended to format the drive and reinstall everything on a
used computer. Most laptops have a procedure to restore the computer to the
factory configuration. Backup your data. Restore the computer to the factory
condition. Install your programs. Restore the data. There are several
reasons for doing this. The main reasons are to make sure there is no
malware on the computer, to make sure you are not responsible for any old
data on the computer, and to make sure you are complying with software
licenses.

You have no idea who used the computer besides your friend.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hi. I recently aquired a laptop from a friend as form of payment for money
she owed me. I have been able to change the name to appear as mine in most
files but it still appears as ....rdelcampo/hernamehere.

How can I make sure I delete all of her info off the computer without
deleteing any programs or files that I have already saved? Also, please note
that she created a user account and this is what I have been doing all of my
work under.

If I delete her User profile and save the file to the desktop will my
documents still show everything I have worked on?

Thanks for any help.

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,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, and some require the information to be entered
manually (typed in) by the installing individual.

The user profile folders (C:\USERS\Username) _cannot_ be renamed,
without risky registry editing, 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. 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

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