old owner's name comes up?

Operating System, Common Application & ThinkPad Utilities Questions...
Post Reply
Message
Author
robpm
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2007 11:31 am
Location: Old Greenwich, CT

old owner's name comes up?

#1 Post by robpm » Tue Feb 19, 2008 6:55 am

I have an X31 which was "pre-owned" as they say. When it boots up, in the log-on, the old owner's (or user, it may have been a corporate computer) is in the dialog box. When I log on, I delete that name and log on with the new name, but it's annoying to have it come up whenever the computer is turned on, or comes back from standby

Now, I 've changed the name of the computer, and tried everything I can think of to get rid of the old name (short of a full reinstall of windows XP, which is not my idea of a good time.

Any thoughts on how I can get rid of this, where this name is embeded in the operating system files?

Thanks in advance
T61 14.1w, X31 for the wife's couch potato web surfing , T23 (gave it to my mother-in-law!), 600E (retired) - Because they just work!

jdhurst
Admin
Admin
Posts: 5831
Joined: Thu Apr 29, 2004 6:49 am
Location: Toronto, Canada

#2 Post by jdhurst » Tue Feb 19, 2008 8:53 am

With standard XP settings (any kind of user log on style), a new name overwrites an old name. I have never seen an old name stick, once I have used a different one. So I am not sure what to suggest. ... JDH

carbon_unit
Moderator Emeritus
Moderator Emeritus
Posts: 2988
Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2004 9:10 pm
Location: South Central Iowa, USA

#3 Post by carbon_unit » Tue Feb 19, 2008 9:24 am

Have you created a new user with your name and then deleted the old user?
T60 2623-D7U, 3 GB Ram.
Dual boot XP and Linux Mint.
Registered linux user #160145

jdhurst
Admin
Admin
Posts: 5831
Joined: Thu Apr 29, 2004 6:49 am
Location: Toronto, Canada

#4 Post by jdhurst » Tue Feb 19, 2008 9:29 am

What carbon_unit suggests should certainly work; however, there must be something else causing the situation, because it is not normal. ... JDH

robpm
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2007 11:31 am
Location: Old Greenwich, CT

#5 Post by robpm » Tue Feb 19, 2008 9:54 am

carbon_unit wrote:Have you created a new user with your name and then deleted the old user?
Yes, that was the first thing I did. It's somewhere deep in the operating system. I even renamed the computer, but it doesn't seem to help
T61 14.1w, X31 for the wife's couch potato web surfing , T23 (gave it to my mother-in-law!), 600E (retired) - Because they just work!

jdhurst
Admin
Admin
Posts: 5831
Joined: Thu Apr 29, 2004 6:49 am
Location: Toronto, Canada

#6 Post by jdhurst » Tue Feb 19, 2008 10:55 am

A couple more things:
1. Look at KB811218 for clues (a Windows 2000 document)
2. Look for and install Powertoys (Tweak UI) for XP and ensure that Auto Logon is not checked ON.

... JDH

RealBlackStuff
Admin
Admin
Posts: 17512
Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:17 am
Location: Mt. Cobb, PA USA
Contact:

#7 Post by RealBlackStuff » Tue Feb 19, 2008 5:26 pm

Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)

Check out The Boardroom for Parts, Mods and Other Services.

Brad
**SENIOR** Member
**SENIOR** Member
Posts: 1846
Joined: Tue Mar 29, 2005 12:41 am
Location: Long Island New York

#8 Post by Brad » Tue Feb 19, 2008 6:13 pm

Try this at your own risk.

Go to start then run and type regedit

WARNING: Edit the registry at your own risk.

Go to find and put the name you don't want. Every time the name is found simply replace it with the name you want.

It may take a few minutes because there may be quite a few entries that need changing.

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Brad
Long Island New York
T43p 2669-Q1U, A22p's UTU A21p HXU
Transnote, 770's 8AU, 600, 701CS, 755CD

carbon_unit
Moderator Emeritus
Moderator Emeritus
Posts: 2988
Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2004 9:10 pm
Location: South Central Iowa, USA

#9 Post by carbon_unit » Wed Feb 20, 2008 9:42 am

Magicaljellybean's keyfinder has a feature to change the name of the registered owner if you are afraid to do the regedit thing.
T60 2623-D7U, 3 GB Ram.
Dual boot XP and Linux Mint.
Registered linux user #160145

Stargate199
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 708
Joined: Thu Jul 13, 2006 2:51 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA

#10 Post by Stargate199 » Wed Feb 20, 2008 6:08 pm

Yeah, I have seen this happened. When you change the name of a user, it basically just creates an alias for the user. If you go and look in Documents and Settings, your user folder still has the old user name. Registry edits should fix most of it, but you can just create a new user profile, copy the my documents (if needed) and then delete the old user name.
I have finally rejoined the dark side.
ThinkPad T450s, Core i7 5600u, 12GB RAM, Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD.
Previous ThinkPads: T41, T21, 600E

Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “Windows OS (Versions prior to Windows 7)”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests