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Master Baiter Joined: 11 Feb 2007 Posts: 128

because i know someone might be able to help me i was wondering if they would be willing to help me. Very Happy

i bought my laptop from bestbuy and because it was the summer and i was feeling extremely lazy, i let them set up windows for me. bad idea i know, anyway for some reason the official name of my account is user' . it is ugly, it has a comma, and i dont like it. yet when i go to control panel to change it i am told my account name is my last name just like i wanted in the first place. so how does that explain this.

how do i change the name user' ?

Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2007 7:20 am

Just go to control panel then user accounts; create a new account (dont use your real name). Usually I give them admin privelages, as long as a login password is created.

Then you can just import all the settings from one account to the other. If that sounds difficult then:

The easier way it just to click on the name user' and then "change my name", however this can cause minor probs but seing as its a new computer there shouldnt't be too much stuff installed that will need it.

Master Baiter Joined: 11 Feb 2007 Posts: 128

actually my account name is different. it is just that file that will not change.

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 7:57 pm

Which operating system?

XP home
XP pro
vista

Master Baiter Joined: 11 Feb 2007 Posts: 128

XP home

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 8:37 pm

That is your problem.

You have to log in as an admin to make the change.

When the computer boots, as soon as the check for disks is finished press 'F8' a few times and you should be in the admin log in screen. Hopefully the techs didn't change the admin account. If you didn't set up the admin account with a password then you should be able to just click the admin account with no password required.

You can make you changes there and they should take.

For some reason, actually I can guess the reason, M$ crippled XP home so you can not make certain changes to the system unless you are in the admin account; which is only accessible through the boot log in. Probably to make people pay more money for the pro version.

I think F8 is correct. I try it and post the correct one if it isn't.

Master Baiter Joined: 11 Feb 2007 Posts: 128

i like pro, its cleaner, i have it for my dead pc but home came with the laptop, back to school special. thanks though i will try that.

Master Baiter Joined: 11 Feb 2007 Posts: 128

actually they probably were thinking in terms of a family pc where you dont want a kid changing his own settings. lol. the home pc at my house is such a a dump. personally i hate the multiple accounts, they just take up space.

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 8:44 pm

Added:
After getting into the mode boot screen with F8, you have to select the safe mode boot option. Then you will be in the admin log-in screen. I forgot that part.

The multiple accounts are for security which most real OSs have. But M$ botched that as well.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 31 Jul 2006 Posts: 17

If I remember rightly, at the logon screen hit ctrl-alt del twice, and it should give you the option to put in a uesername \ password

Master Baiter Joined: 11 Feb 2007 Posts: 128

in response to ar.soul maybe something like that, i think i might have done that accidently once as it brought up the old style login to the ghastly user'

to DrWho, for some reason i can not get F8 to do anything no matter how many times i smack it. did you mean F12 or F2?

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 12:48 am

F8. Takes you to the boot options screen. A long list of selections: safe, command line only, normal, etc. As soon as the first boot screen starts press the F8 key keep pressing up, down, up, down, for maybe 6 times. Or until the keyboard starts to beep when you press the key. It means the buffer is full. If it does not enter the boot options screen, it may be turned off in the windows options. If you have 'msconfig' program installed, click 'start' -> 'run' enter 'msconfig' in the line and press 'enter'. Find the boot tab and set it to either safe boot on the next start or enable the boot screen. I forget which it is exactly.

F2 and F12 puts you in the BIOS screen at startup if you have a Dell, like mine. Otherwise I don't know what they do.

Or tell me exactly what you do and how it doesn't work.

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 3:52 am

When you get the the login like ar.soul said, try the username administrator and no password. most likely wont work but they really have no right to put an administrative password in unless they disclose it to you.

If as I read, you are just worried about that account being there, just delete that particular profile then... make sure you back it up first, but if you already have an active profile other than user' then there's no problem in deleting it if you dont use it.

Master Baiter Joined: 11 Feb 2007 Posts: 128

i think its like code for my user account. i dont really understad code or whatnot but it seems to me the easiest way would be to make another user account the same name and just transfer everything from the user' account. I just dont want to lose anything when i do that. so as a solution i will just deal. it wouldnt explain why i cant run the set up for my hp scanner would it? cause it says it "cannot create a log file" blah blah blah. whateva, thanks for all the input.

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 8:50 am

Well you certainly need admin privelages to install things like that.. try the control panel user accounts option like I said above, and check your current account has administrative privelidges. If not, you will need to login as the administrator, and give your account privelages.

Before you do start mucking around, I strongly recommend backing up your emails and user files, your desktop and your my documents folders, as a small mistake with the user accounts can wipe it all.

Master Baiter Joined: 11 Feb 2007 Posts: 128

that is exactly why i am not mucking around just yet. i know i have admin privilages, that i can do. i had the same problem when i set up openoffice and it was because i tried to open the installer off the desktop. but this is program that i have the disk for and have tried downloading.

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:42 am

XP home is different XP pro. Don't confuse the two. How you act as admin is different. In home you *must* log in as the administrator through the safe mode or there are many admin functions you can't use. Believe me, I have found many of them.

Master Baiter Joined: 11 Feb 2007 Posts: 128

wow thats craptastic. i did go into safe mode and it did not seem to have a solution for me. dont stress about it.

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 7:25 am

can you not just do a registry scan and change all instances of user' to whatever you want.

XP Home doesn't use the NTFS permissions the way XP Pro does so you should be ok to do this.

Master Baiter Joined: 11 Feb 2007 Posts: 128

idk. it doesnt let my change it in windows cause it says its a system file. i dont know enough to play with the registry. only when deleting start up programs.

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 9:21 pm

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Windows-XP-3282/changing-user-name.htm