[dandmb50]

I want to sell my computer, desktop XP SP2 but I want to change the name as registered user to my friend. How do I do that or can it be done without re-installing windows?

I called Microsoft and they want $45 to do it?

Any suggestions?

Daniel...........Toronto

[Claymore]

Hi,

Well, if you want to change the name that shows up in System Properties (Right-click My Computer => Properties) you can change this in the Registry:

Go to Start => Run and type in regedit

Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion
Look in the right-hand pane for the String RegisteredOwner
Note down what it says.
Right-click and click Modify
Type in what you want.
It should take effect immediately.

However ...

Your name may show as the Registered User in other Registry entries, especially some installation programs that pick up the Registered User name. So...

Still in the Registry Editor do a search for the user name you noted down earlier.
When setting the Search, check the Data box only (uncheck the others), and check the box Match whole string only
You will probably get a few "hits" for the String RegOwner. Right-click and Modify these also.

[dandmb50]

Many thanks it worked...

Daniel..........Toronto

[JohnWill]

Did you change the name of your user profile in Documents and Settings? Here's a procedure to copy the profile to a new name.

http://www.petri.co.il/copy_user_pro...windows_xp.htm

[Bob Cerelli]

If you want to sell the computer and remove your data, you might want to delete your user accounts and delete the data that goes with them.

To clarifiy, any user profiles can easily be different than the registered owner that Claymore showed you how to change.