Changing Computer Name in Windows 7

[Guest kdavis1049]

I changed my Computer Name by going into Control Panel\System and Security\System and clicking on Change Settings in the Computer Name, domain and workgroup settingsfield. After making the name change I rebooted and the new Computer Name was displayed but the original Computer Name is still displayed as well. And when I click on the old Computer Name it says: Windows Cannot Access (old Computer Name). I tried rebooting again but the new and the old Computer Names are displayed and I can't figure out how to get rid of the old name. Any help that you can offer would be very much appreciated.

[Steve Krause]

What do you mean it displays the old computer name. Where? At login? Or?

 

Just trying to figure out where this is.

[Rufio]

Are you sure you're not looking at a bad network shortcut?

[dw96]

Try restoring your computer to an earlier point in time. This might help to get rid of any errors:

Go to Start and type in "Backup and Restore". Hit enter and restore your computer to an earlier point in time. Make sure you're making the restore to a point BEFORE you changed the computer name.

 

If you have your restore points disabled, your best bet would be making a repair install from the Windows 7 DVD...

[Kumanina]

I changed my Computer Name by going into Control Panel\System and Security\System and clicking on Change Settings in the Computer Name, domain and workgroup settingsfield. After making the name change I rebooted and the new Computer Name was displayed but the original Computer Name is still displayed as well. And when I click on the old Computer Name it says: Windows Cannot Access (old Computer Name). I tried rebooting again but the new and the old Computer Names are displayed and I can't figure out how to get rid of the old name. Any help that you can offer would be very much appreciated.

Do you Got a nother User on the computer???

[Guest aerospook]

I think I already know the sad answer to this, but.....I have a user that changed her name of her computer with system restore off...Now, her user profile is gone (bookmarks, etc) as well as her .ost file. Now she has left her previous company and cannot connect to exchange. Any way to find her old profile and activate it?

[jordan]

I think I already know the sad answer to this, but.....I have a user that changed her name of her computer with system restore off...Now, her user profile is gone (bookmarks, etc) as well as her .ost file. Now she has left her previous company and cannot connect to exchange. Any way to find her old profile and activate it?

 

Not sure exactly what the issues is here, but if you're locked out of your computer and cannot get into it, there are methods of obtaining the data without having to login through Windows. Obviously you need to be the owner of the computer and of the actual data. I've done this before using a Linux OS called Knoppix and boots from a CD.

 

Let me just say it wasn't exactly a walk in the park getting the files needed, so I wouldn't attempt this if you're not sure what you're doing, or aren't at least moderately tech savvy. If you're not sure what to do, you can usually hire someone to do this type of thing for you.

 

If you're not worried about messing anything up and you want to give this a try you can go to http://www.knoppix.net/ and create the bootable disk and try to go from there.

[Austin]

I think I already know the sad answer to this, but.....I have a user that changed her name of her computer with system restore off...Now, her user profile is gone (bookmarks, etc) as well as her .ost file. Now she has left her previous company and cannot connect to exchange. Any way to find her old profile and activate it?

 

It depends on where the files are located. If they are stored on the old exchange cloud then it's tough luck. However if they are local (which is likely) then you'll find them in the %UserProfile% somewhere. The problem is with most Windows operating systems is it locks the files once you leave the domain or log in as a different user. You can get around this using the Take Ownership tool found here:

http://www.groovypost.com/howto/microso ... s-folders/