Quick Tip: Change the Registered Owner in Windows
If you’ve ever wondered how to change the name of the person that Windows is registered to, this is the quick tip for you. It’s not all that useful, but it might come in handy if you got a computer from somebody else.
Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search box, and then locate the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
Now you can find the RegisteredOwner and RegisteredOrganization keys in the right-hand pane. Change them to whatever values you want.
To show off the new changes, just type winver.exe into the start menu search box to see the About Windows box:
Kinda useless, but one of those things I have to write about if I want to cover everything 
This should work in all versions of Windows, including Windows 7.
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Thank you for this!
My new HP laptop automatically filled in their name in the organization box and every program I’d go to install later on would fill that in automatically. ugh.
Not a useless tip! I’ve been fighting for a way to do this for a couple months now.
It is only for Vista??
How about others windows version??
thanks…this is usefull, indeed.
Definitely not useless! I had no idea how to change this. I inherited this office computer and never knew how to update with my name. Thank you!
I’d like to know how to do something similar to that on OSX. I still have the original owner of my MacBook Pro’s name on the home folder.
This works for Windows XP also. I just successfully did it.
WORKS WITH ALL VERSIONS OF WINDOWS
probly xp too.
well, it works with 2000 at least
*saves to del.icio.us* Oh thank you for this WONDERFUL tip! I just used it and it works (I’m on WinXP). I’ll try to remember this the next time I run into this problem…as it happens frequently.
You can do this using a free application called Change Owner v1.0.
It is small and free. Works both with Windows Vista and Windows XP.
thanks
it changed the registered owner name.
but when i hybernate my laptop, and it try to relogin with the admin login, it shows the name of the previous owner. how do i change that?
Cheers mate! For your info on how to change the registered windows user name. Been anoyin me for ages and I thought it couldnt be done. But thx to you my problem has been solved.
That was great info, I was looking all over for that. I had changed every other “registered to” but couldn’t find that one. AWESOME Thanks,
Your tip on how to change the owner name was not worthless. I have a situation where I bought a computer from a guy due to a cash flow problem, with the gentalmen’s agreement he could buy it back if he found the money. He did, but I had already put my name as the computer’s owner. Now I can sell it back with the computer saying he owns it.
Thanks.
Well, I’m very glad that this tip came in handy for so many people… I had no idea it would be so popular!
i change the rigister owner name but after i restart it i clicked my computer and properties to check if the changes activeted but it is still with the previous owner name how can i change it under my name thank you
re:Quick Tip: Change the Registered Owner in Windows
Many thanks, this has given a new lease of life an old laptop we obtained.
I’ve the registered owner’s name successfully in my XP, but the old file extensions still show the old name. How do I change them as well?
I’ve successfully changed the registered owner’s name, but my file extenstions still contain the old name. Any way I can change that too? Thanks!
Thank you for the helpful info. on how to change register name on a pc. I now know where to come if I have any future problems.
Thank you for the helpful info. on how to change register name on a pc. I now know where to come for any future computer problemx.
I thought it was extremely helpful information! I was very troubled by the previous owners name on the screen since I like to have the whole thing just mine (Yeah, I know it’s a little off the wall, but I bought the thing). SO thanks a lot, it was truly appreciated!
Dean
Thanks! It works for my XP based PC.
Thanks a bunch. I was just about to blow the drive away and start anew. Not useless by any stretch of the imagination.
Thank you so much. I have been looking for a way to do this for over 6 months.
NOT too useless. I am selling a laptop to my girlfriend, and it has my previous girlfriends name on it!
@Alan
If I were you, I’d be reformatting just to make sure… nothing worse than getting caught with the ex’s name somewhere!
Geek, thank you for this tip. I’m setting up my old PC XP-Pro for my father and I do not now how to remove my name at the startup and in Documents & Settings? When I try to rename, system responds with “Susan is a Windows system folder….. It cannot be moved or renamed.”
Thanks for any advice.
Thank you very much it works…:)
Thank you very much for the useful information. Everything looks good except for the file extensions. As I go save a document, the previous owner of my laptop (vista) still has her name following my name. How can I completely wipe her name out? Any tips? Thank you
NOT useless!
I actually found this myself by opening RegEdit and guessing for search entries. Tedious.
I wish I hadda seen this first!
Thank you.
This has been doing my head in for so long.
You have made my day cheers mate.
this is great, many thanks
Thanks mate!
THANKS!!! I was successfully able to change my computers name to my own from : Staples Store#1047
Hi, I did that on my to my computer but then under C:\Users it says Clarence not Claudia. I registered the computer under Clarence but after doing that and all sorts of other stuff, I still cannot change the Clarence under C:\Users to Claudia. Any Ideas?
Thank you very much it works
AMAZING! Thanks a lot! Even a little better:
create a text file, call it RegisterOwner.reg or whatever .reg you want. Open it, and paste this code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion]
“RegisteredOrganization”=”My Organization”
“RegisteredOwner”=”My Name”
Change organization and registered name. Save. Run .reg file. DONE!
Hey, it is useful, trust me! In my case, when the staff at [major PC retail outlet] did some installs on my brand new laptop for me and… spelt my name wrong when setting it up. *sigh* That would’ve driven me batty for the rest of my machine’s natural life – so thank you so much for the painless how-to guide!
WOW ABOUT TIME MAN lol i been searching for a way to get rid of this computers user name for so long even though i changed everything it would still say the old computer name and mine and this finally helped me change everything and i feel gratified.
Many thanks from Israel!
))
Finally there is no more any little nerve-racking issues in MY GOOD NAME laptop
your truly a GOD send my friend, thanks for so much involved work you do for us poor folks with antique equipment. You see Ive never had a new pc or notebook, your advice has been paramount.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I had tried to do this for days and couldn’t figure it out. Thank you so much for this!
Did not work for me, I still previous owner’s name everywhere — comments in Excel, default folders, Outlook. Very frustrating> I would not recommend buying Vista until its debugged.
Several UNANSWERED questions here.
How to change the Folder Name under “My Documents and Settings” to the new user?
I agree with Bob.
- Comments in Excel or Word are still auto-filled with the previous owner’s name
- “My Documents and Settings” still has the old owner’s name and everything defaults to this — saving files, music, etc.
After reading that comment where Alan was going to sell his laptop to his new girlfriend with his old girlfriend’s name removed, I wonder if the former girl friend’s name might still pop up. Good luck to you on that
Still it a good start, I have my name on the Winver.exe so I am in there somewhere.
Actually, this was extremely useful and easy. I just started using Vista and it was frustrating to see the name of the previous user everywhere! Thanks.
to change it in my documents, etc. go to control panel, users and change the name there.
I changed the user name before the computer name and it still shows the old one in all file names – new and old. Sometimes shows both new and old names. I’ve looked into it and found there’s commercial software available for changing file names, but knowing nothing about it I’m afraid to try. Any ideas?
Thank you Natalie
My bad totally, I have, in fact, added my account in the Control Panel and cannot delete the old one. I am new with Vista so any help is appreciated. The file organization appears different:
c:\user\”various user names, and herein is the problem”\”various folders including ‘documents’ ‘my music’ and ‘desktop’.
There are two users now, me and the previous user, let’s say Tim (that’s me) and let’s use the name Darth Vader (the previous user). My desktop, my ’save’ defaults are all Darth’s. Darth even is credited with any new documents I develop. If I make a note in an Excel Spreadsheet, Darth’s name is auto-filled. If I install a new program, you guessed it, Darth owns it.
On the flip side, since Darth previously used “save my password on this site” I found myself accidentally accessing one of his web accounts. Definitely not good.
Our IT person is looking into it and is thinking that a new install is the only way to fix this. I am not liking that either.
– Desperate in DC
OMG thank you – I hated having the ‘owner’ beside the path file in the network discovery area.
Thanks for this advice. The change registered owner works great – (windows XP) but I still can track down how to get rid (actually rename) the original user in the documents & settings folder in windows explorer. It comes up with ” is a windows system folder and is required for windows to run properly. It cannot be removed or renamed”. Others on this thread seem to have the same problem – any ideas? Thanks.
This info is definitely not useless. If I were an expert with computers, I would not be looking for this sort of info. I have been trying for months to do this for an inherited pc without success. Thanks!!!
Thanks so much!
OMG!!!! Thank you!!! Not useless at all!!!
I’ve changed my name everywhere possible: user, registration, etc, but when I save any file it still shows the old users name in the file extension. Example: C:\Documents and Settings\Her name\Desktop. Any advise?
@Aaron: That is because you can’t change the profile folder location. You can create a new user account and move the old files to it to get a path with your name in it.
If you have any other questions, post them in the forums.
You may want to search it first though as that question has been asked before.
It worked great on XP SP2 Home Edition:D
Not useless! This was very helpful to me as I needed it to correct a search indexing problem in Picasa 3. Thanks!
Thanx for this registered owners name change information. I changed girlfriends and well you can guess the trouble I was having. My new girlfriend is happy now, or at least will have to bitch about sommething else now!!!
Thank you!!!
Thank you so much for this having the wrong owner name on everything has been driving me mad!
Question:on mine it just says Default on all of the options,and i don’t see any Registered owner option or any of the ones in the pic,it just has this in every folder Name:Default Type:REG_SZ Data:(value not set)
Thanks, you rule! I despised seeing “Fry’s Electronics” everywhere!!
people seem to have problems when trying to disable UAC when they go through the steps windows acts like its disabling before a reboot but only for the user client login see after a restart the login screen still apears. and dident really shut off. Here is why Before you turn off UAC user account control its a must that you remove all passwords from all logins only then will windows actually turn off the UAC when you don the right setings. as long as a password is on anyone login the UAC remains active with no error messages because this is a programing structure not a error. sorry for the miss spelled words.
Thank you for posting this. My comptuer was used and the owner it to me. Yet all my word documents said the author was the registered name. (Which wasn’t even the name of a log in when I recieved the comptuer.) Thanks again, and to anyone that is still wondering this works in XP and possible older version. Also going to run and inserting regedit.exe works too.
thankx it did work well
Works on Windows Server 2003
Not useless, it changed the name of the old owner of my laptop, but after changing it, it suddenly caused my computer to crash and reboot twice for no reason, and some of my programs stll display the old name, or display nothing at all
This was a lifesaver!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had a trojan and had to wipe clean my computer, accidentally added an extra letter to my name, easy fix. I’m detailed like that- it would have irritated me so bad I would have wiped it again just to fix one letter.
For those of you who are wanting to COMPLETELY wipe out older user names from your computer, here are the steps:
1. Open “Run” in your start menu
2. Type “control userpasswords2″
3. Click on the old name and click “properties”
4. Change the old name to your name
5. Restart your computer
6. Viola! Problem fixed!!
Been trying to change this for 5 years. I really should have done a Google search sooner! Great tip, thanks.
THANKS MATTHEW,
I’m about to restart my computer and see if that worked!!! I’ve been working of trying to change this for a few months now.
I wrote a program to change the registry entries so you don’t have to muck about in the registry. Works for Windows XP and VISTA. However with windows vista you must right click on the program and select ‘Run as Administrator’ or the program won’t have sufficient access to the registry.
http://www.datpdx.com/download.php?view.1
I used this tip to change the values in XP and it worked.
thankx a lot mathew, it helped me a lot. but i am encountering one more problem, my laptop still shows 2 owner names, one in capital letters and other in small letters….wat should i do?
Hi, I just put my PC up for sale and thanks I was hoping to wipe it clean before I sold it. I didn’t want my name on there. I just put “Owner” and a set of instructions on how to put on their name. Thank You so much. Also I just wanted to know since my new computer isn’t PC if I can do the same thing to my Macbook. I also bought it used and was wondering if I could change my name without taking it in the the Apple store?
Thanks Again
Indeed, not useless at all! I bought a nice brand new laptop off a guy who’d just been laid off and needed rent money… so this helped me!!!
Helpful for anyone who “repurposes” computers to others in the family (my wife inherits mine, hers goes to the oldest, etc.).
it wont work on my vista it says default value name please help
THANK YOU !!!!!!!!