How Do I Change The Name Of Who A Computer Is Registered To Under Windows Xp

Technique

Salve Time Past
Finding out what proper name your figurer is registered to
Updating Windows' Registered Owner and Registered Company
Then you lot just finished reading Technique 68 and you desire to try a Registry change that won't go you lot tied upward in knots. Have I got a tweak for you lot.
When yous outset installed Windows, or when you fired up your PC as presently as you got it out of the box, the installer asked you for your name and your arrangement's proper name. Did you go information technology right? Has it changed since and so?

Yeah, me, too.

This short technique takes y'all through the elementary steps to modify the Registry so Windows thinks information technology belongs to the person and organization you lot choose. Whether you lot feed Windows the existent affair — well, that's up to y'all.

Seeing Who Owns Your PC

Every Windows XP PC has a registered possessor and a registered organization. Confusingly, these settings take nothing to do with whether yous, uh, registered Windows or not. (I talk about registering your copy of Windows — actually, I warn you lot non to do it — in Technique ii.)
Your computer'due south registered possessor and registered organization come from information that you typed into the Windows installer. Chances are good that was so long ago you've forgotten that you ever did information technology.
The easiest way to meet Windows' official registered owner and system is to
1, Click Start.
2, Right-click My Estimator.
three, Choose Properties.
Windows shows you the System Properties dialog box in Effigy 69-one. You can read the owner and organization underneath the Registered To line.
My completely screwed-up registered owner and organization settings.
• Effigy 69-ane: My completely screwed-upwards registered owner and organization settings.
If your registered owner and system are | wrong, don't feel too bad. I'd estimate that half of all the PCs in the globe are working just fine with incorrect owners and organizations.
The biggest problem with an incorrect owner and organization? Other programs frequently option upwardly the names when they get installed, so you either have to over-blazon the proper noun and organization when you install new programs — or you lot simply alive with existence identified. Hey, I've been called worse.

Changing the Owner and Organisation

Information technology just and then happens that irresolute the registered owner and organization takes just a minute or two, providing you lot're willing to swoop into the Windows Registry.
The first rule of editing the Registry: Don't do | information technology unless y'all have to. Tweak Ul (which I talk almost in Technique 5) handles a wide range of changes, and nigh always eliminates the need to dig into the Registry. Surprisingly, though, Tweak Ul doesn't let yous change the registered possessor or organisation. Thus, a quick dip in the Registry is warranted.

To change the registered possessor and arrangement

7. Choose Start Run, type regedit and press Enter.
The Windows Registry Editor appears (shown in Figure 69-2).

• Figure 69-2: The Registry Editor in all its glory.
2. On the left side, under My Computer, doubleclick and navigate all the fashion down to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Windows NTACurrentVersion (see Figure 69-three).
Yes, I know that you aren't running Windows NT. Some Registry settings are in really weird places.

• Figure 69-3: The Registry key that contains the registered owner and arrangement.
3, On the left, make sure yous click
Current Version. Then on the right, coil down to Registered Possessor and double-click it.
An Edit Cord dialog box appears (encounter Figure 69M).

• Figure 69-4: The registered owner appears here.
4 In the Value Data box, type the name you want to utilise for the registered owner. Then click OK.
The Registry gets updated with the value yous
typed.
five, On the right, double-click Registered Organization.
Over again, y'all see an Edit Cord dialog box.
6, In the Value Data box, type the proper noun you want to appear for the registered organization. And then
click OK.
Yeah, yous can merits that this copy of Windows XP is registered to Microsoft Corp. Or the Primal
Intelligence Bureau. Or SMERSH.
vii Cull File Go out to leave the Registry Editor.
8, Check to make sure your changes are correct by clicking First, right-clicking My Computer, and choosing Properties.
Your new, improved System Properties box appears (come across Figure 69-5).

• Figure 69-5: Now that's more like it.