User name and organisation. How to change?

[ceed]

Hi,

Very often when I install programs on Vista they ask for user name and
organisation. However, these fields are pre-filled with "user1" and
"Hewlett Packard" (it is a HP laptop). How do I change this
information? I just can't figure out where it is stored.

 

[Michael Solomon]

Hi,

Very often when I install programs on Vista they ask for user name and
organisation. However, these fields are pre-filled with "user1" and
"Hewlett Packard" (it is a HP laptop). How do I change this
information? I just can't figure out where it is stored.

Control Panel\System, under Computer Name, Domain and Workgroup settings,
click Change settings.

 

[Michael Price]

Search the registry for "owner". You will find the 2 keys that you need to
change there.

 

[ceed]

Search the registry for "owner". You will find the 2 keys that you
need to change there.

I get 350 hits when I search for owner. I now know it's in the
registry, so I will find it. Thank you for pointing me in the right
direction!

 

[Andrew McLaren]

Control Panel\System, under Computer Name, Domain and Workgroup settings,
click Change settings.

With great respect, Michael ... you're wrong The steps you suggest let
the user change the machine name (NetBIOS and/or DNS hostname) and domain
name. There's no facility under Control Panel, System, to change the
Registered Owner or the Organisation name. I don't think there's any way to
change these values through the normal UI. You need to munge the Registry.


Ceed: the Owner and Organisation are stored in the Registry, under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

The values are called "RegisteredOwner" and "RegisteredOrganization".

Run regedit as administrator, navigate to the RegisteredOwner value, and
double-click to modify it. Change it to your desired value. Repeat for
RegisteredOrganization. Click OK and exit Regedit. When you reboot, the new
value will be displayed.

Hope it helps!

PS: Michael Solomon's technical replies are usually high quality. I respect
him as a colleague. This was a freak mis-fire.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hi,

Very often when I install programs on Vista they ask for user name and
organisation. However, these fields are pre-filled with "user1" and
"Hewlett Packard" (it is a HP laptop). How do I change this
information? I just can't figure out where it is stored.

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.


--

Bruce Chambers

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[Michael Solomon]

With great respect, Michael ... you're wrong The steps you suggest let
the user change the machine name (NetBIOS and/or DNS hostname) and domain
name. There's no facility under Control Panel, System, to change the
Registered Owner or the Organisation name. I don't think there's any way
to change these values through the normal UI. You need to munge the
Registry.


Ceed: the Owner and Organisation are stored in the Registry, under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

The values are called "RegisteredOwner" and "RegisteredOrganization".

Run regedit as administrator, navigate to the RegisteredOwner value, and
double-click to modify it. Change it to your desired value. Repeat for
RegisteredOrganization. Click OK and exit Regedit. When you reboot, the
new
value will be displayed.

Hope it helps!

PS: Michael Solomon's technical replies are usually high quality. I
respect him as a colleague. This was a freak mis-fire.

Thank you, Andrew.

I certainly apologize if I am wrong and I might have misunderstood what he
was seeking. In Control Panel, under System, when a user is not on a
domain, the computer name and full computer name, I had thought were the
equivalent of Computer name and Organization under Windows XP. When I had a
similar situation in XP to what the OP described, wherein the application
defaulted to a specific name and organization, it was in that area I changed
it without having to resort to editing the registry (As a general rule, I
try to find ways of accomplishing tasks at system level before resorting to
a registry edit).

Admittedly, I had not specifically tried this in Vista and clearly,
"Organization" is not listed under system. I probably should have first
asked the OP if it was listed there. If yes, then I think the change could
obviously be made there but if not, then as far as I know, a registry edit
as already suggested would be the only way to accomplish the task.

Of course, if the OEM hard wired it, that would be another reason you'd have
to go into the registry as well because the option to change that
information would likely not exist in the System tab.

Thanks anyway, I should have looked a little further before I leaped!

 

[Michael Solomon]

With great respect, Michael ... you're wrong The steps you suggest let
the user change the machine name (NetBIOS and/or DNS hostname) and domain
name. There's no facility under Control Panel, System, to change the
Registered Owner or the Organisation name. I don't think there's any way
to change these values through the normal UI. You need to munge the
Registry.


Ceed: the Owner and Organisation are stored in the Registry, under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

The values are called "RegisteredOwner" and "RegisteredOrganization".

Run regedit as administrator, navigate to the RegisteredOwner value, and
double-click to modify it. Change it to your desired value. Repeat for
RegisteredOrganization. Click OK and exit Regedit. When you reboot, the
new
value will be displayed.

Hope it helps!

PS: Michael Solomon's technical replies are usually high quality. I
respect him as a colleague. This was a freak mis-fire.

Now that I think about it, I may have had to change it in the registry even
when I did make the change at system level in XP...I really should have
looked before I leaped on this one!