How to rename "Computer" to "Username on Computername"

AvatarOfTheShip said:

NCondulmari said:

What is this useless ranting about disciplinary measures? I don't know who you are but I'm glad I never met you and hopefully never will.
It's evident you don't know how to answer the technical question so you hide behind useless and ridicule policy declamations.
If you represent the best this forum can offer it's really a sad situation.

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Hmm - somebody's missing Il Duce

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[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6Rruvh2Uj8"]YouTube- Alexei Sayle - El Ducci / Mussolini - The Young Ones[/ame]

Here is a advanced registry editing tool The home of Spybot-S&D!
And are you having this problem on other computers as well? (excuse me if this has been clarified or asked before, ive only had 1 coffee this morning)
And are you running a localized version of windows?

H2SO4 - please don't mock; don't you know he made the trains run on time? In Italy?

How to rename "Computer" to "Username on Computername"

Hakon said:

Here is a advanced registry editing tool The home of Spybot-S&D!
And are you having this problem on other computers as well? (excuse me if this has been clarified or asked before, ive only had 1 coffee this morning)
And are you running a localized version of windows?

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No I only have this problem on computers running windows 7. I managed to modify the key, but to no effect.

AvatarOfTheShip said:

H2SO4 - please don't mock; don't you know he made the trains run on orum"time? In Italy?

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This forum should be renamed "Comical geeks forum" or "Sitting down comedians".
Does anybody know how to answer my question???

NCondulmari said:

AvatarOfTheShip said:

H2SO4 - please don't mock; don't you know he made the trains run on orum"time? In Italy?

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This forum should be renamed "Comical geeks forum" or "Sitting down comedians".
Does anybody know how to answer my question???

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Look if you arent finding your answer's then you can always look somewhere else.

Now, to your issue.

I have tested this working on a Win7 RTM installation.

Please when you create the new registry key, be sure to make it an "expanded string" key

also do not include the qoutes when entering the value into the key.

I am exporting the key and will attach it to this post for you to try importing, but I think you will still need to take ownership of the key first.

ccatlett1984 said:

NCondulmari said:

AvatarOfTheShip said:

H2SO4 - please don't mock; don't you know he made the trains run on orum"time? In Italy?

Click to expand...

This forum should be renamed "Comical geeks forum" or "Sitting down comedians".
Does anybody know how to answer my question???

Click to expand...

Look if you arent finding your answer's then you can always look somewhere else.

Now, to your issue.

I have tested this working on a Win7 RTM installation.

Please when you create the new registry key, be sure to make it an "expanded string"

also do not include the qoutes when entering the value into the key.

I am exporting the key and will attach it to this post for you to try importing, but I think you will still need to take ownership of the key first.

Click to expand...

Thank you for your answer and suggestions, finally somebody gave me a serious answer. By the way I posted this question to other forums, with no result.
I had already made myself (i'm Administrator) owner of the key and all the subkeys. I downloaded the reg file attached to your post and executed it successfully. Unfortunately the Icon's name is still "Computer"
I am running Windows 7 Ultimate on an Asus-Lamborghini VX2s with 2 GB RAM.
I exported the key after executing your reg file and I'm attaching the exported key to this reply.
Thank you again. Hope to find a solution soon.

NCondulmari said:

I had already made myself (i'm Administrator) owner of the key and all the subkeys. I downloaded the reg file attached to your post and executed it successfully. Unfortunately the Icon's name is still "Computer"
I am running Windows 7 Ultimate on an Asus-Lamborghini VX2s with 2 GB RAM.
I exported the key after executing your reg file and I'm attaching the exported key to this reply.
Thank you again. Hope to find a solution soon.

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By comparing the two reg files, I dont think the change was actually made to the localizedstring value, could you open regedit and look at the value that is actually set and post it.

How to rename "Computer" to "Username on Computername"

ccatlett1984 said:

NCondulmari said:

I had already made myself (i'm Administrator) owner of the key and all the subkeys. I downloaded the reg file attached to your post and executed it successfully. Unfortunately the Icon's name is still "Computer"
I am running Windows 7 Ultimate on an Asus-Lamborghini VX2s with 2 GB RAM.
I exported the key after executing your reg file and I'm attaching the exported key to this reply.
Thank you again. Hope to find a solution soon.

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By comparing the two reg files, I dont think the change was actually made to the localizedstring value, could you open regedit and look at the value that is actually set and post it.

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Sorry but the two files are perfectly identical. I converted your LocalizedString.reg into a text file LocalizedString.txt (attached) and then exported my modified registry key into a second text file MyLocalizedString.txt (attached) and then compared the two files with DiffDoc.exe that did not find any difference.
It is evident that some block in windows 7 does not allow this tweak to work. I recognize that you have been the only one trying seriously to answer my question. Unfortunaltely it did not work. Thank you for your help. I posted my system configuration.

Step I had to take to make the change and get it to show was to go into permissions and take ownership of the key then assign myself rights to read and write. Works for me I have the desktop icon now named to whomever is logged in. Check your permissions and ownership. Delete the key and try again.

As for H2S04, he is right. Leaving any workstation open whether in a "public" or office environment is a serious security breach and needs to be addressed. Last place I worked there was a bank of office right next to the employee exit and entrance. Not only were all laptop desktops to be locked but so were the doors to the offices if not occupied.

How to rename "Computer" to "Username on Computername"

NCondulmari said:

ccatlett1984 said:

NCondulmari said:

I had already made myself (i'm Administrator) owner of the key and all the subkeys. I downloaded the reg file attached to your post and executed it successfully. Unfortunately the Icon's name is still "Computer"
I am running Windows 7 Ultimate on an Asus-Lamborghini VX2s with 2 GB RAM.
I exported the key after executing your reg file and I'm attaching the exported key to this reply.
Thank you again. Hope to find a solution soon.

Click to expand...

By comparing the two reg files, I dont think the change was actually made to the localizedstring value, could you open regedit and look at the value that is actually set and post it.

Click to expand...

Sorry but the two files are perfectly identical. I converted your LocalizedString.reg into a text file LocalizedString.txt (attached) and then exported my modified registry key into a second text file MyLocalizedString.txt (attached) and then compared the two files with DiffDoc.exe that did not find any difference.
It is evident that some block in windows 7 does not allow this tweak to work. I recognize that you have been the only one trying seriously to answer my question. Unfortunaltely it did not work. Thank you for your help. I posted my system configuration.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I did not upload the 2 txt files, I do it now

How to rename "Computer" to "Username on Computername"

TheB2B said:

Step I had to take to make the change and get it to show was to go into permissions and take ownership of the key then assign myself rights to read and write. Works for me I have the desktop icon now named to whomever is logged in. Check your permissions and ownership. Delete the key and try again.

As for H2S04, he is right. Leaving any workstation open whether in a "public" or office environment is a serious security breach and needs to be addressed. Last place I worked there was a bank of office right next to the employee exit and entrance. Not only were all laptop desktops to be locked but so were the doors to the offices if not occupied.

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I already DID all that. I have ownership and full control of the key, I succeeded in changing the value that now is %USERNAME% on %COMPUTERNAME%. Nevertheless the desktop icon's name remains "Computer". I suspect there is some in the OS that ignores the change. I have tens of computer in my office running Windows XP or Windows Vista and the tweak works perfectly. It does'nt work on my laptop that is running Windows 7 Ultimate, while it worked on it before I migrated from Vista to Windows 7.
Any way, I gave up.
As far as H2SO4 is concerned, nobody ever said that in my office computers are left unattended. And I still think he made unacceptabel comments.
Thank you for your comments.

BGINFO as alternative solution

This does not do exactly what you are asking for, but it could be used to serve the same purpose; i.e., displaying the logged in user.

Bginfo will allow some system information, including the logged in user, to be displayed on the desktop background. It can be customized to show just the user if that's all you want.

Bginfo at sysinternals:

BgInfo

Solved how to rename the computer icon in windows 7

Good morning everybody. Problem solved!!
The tweak works perfectly on my desktop at the office and any other pc running Windows 7 that I could try it on.
It still did not work on my ASUS LapTop due to the Asus Security chip tha was'nt activated correctly. Done tah everything is fine.
So the solution is:
1. open regedit with administartive priviledges.
2. take ownership and full control of the key
3. modify the key.
Thank you evrybody for your help and patience

Not to bring back a totally dead topic, but the solution doesn't appear that I've seen yet -- here on SevenForums or elsewhere. I've been looking for the answer and getting frustrated at my inability to find helpful information. In reality, taking over the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT key previously mentioned in this thread isn't all that dangerous, but a significant pain.

The registry key you want to set to rename the Computer icon in Windows 7 and Windows 8 is:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}]
@="This is the value you want to set"

This key, because it's only for the local user, doesn't require any special permissions changes. You can modify this in your startup script.

In my case, I'm using a RegistryWrite() function in VBS. The above is the current solution for 7/8 machines. For Windows XP you want to use:

RegistryWrite HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, "CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}", "LocalizedString", "This is the value you want to set"

I found this because I'd already manually renamed my computer icon, and the registry key you guys are referring to was still 'Computer'. Big red flag. So instead I renamed my Computer icon to a bunch of gibberish and scanned the registry for it.

Best wishes, gentlemen.

here is what i found, based on most of what was said previously it didn't work for me and I would get "%username% on %computername%" as the text of the desktop icon. It wasn't expanding the variables to their values.

what i did was delete the value of "Computer" which was there in "default" under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

then if i go back to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
and redo LocalizedString as type REG_EXPAND_SZ and put in that %username% on %computername% the desktop icon immediately changes with F5.

if i go back to the hkey_current_user and change that value, then the desktop icon immediately changes to whatever that is.
now the catch was like said before, you have to take ownership and permissions of the root key in order to change it in regedit.

For me, this is not cosmetic. I need to be able to get the hostname from my users promptly, or it wastes a substantial amount of time. The last thing I want them doing is crawling around under their desks bumping cables trying to read the label I put on the case. I'm not sure why we're so bogged down on "why do you want to?" I want to, and I am responsible for the machines. That suffices.
This is a very basic registry edit. This is not a tangible risk.
In my office, I use the following in the logon script, which leaves us with a static value in the registry key (no issues of whether or not it's evaluating the environment variables). If they don't manually refresh the desktop, it doesn't automatically refresh the desktop, but rather than a manual refresh I ignore it -- I do this and often, if I need the computer hostname, I ask them to look in their start menu.
LogWrite "Update the Computer/My Computer icon..."
Dim strNewName, objShell
Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
strNewName = "Computer (" & objShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%computername%") & ")"
If Match(GetWindowsVersion, "5", "", "") Then strNewName = "My " & strNewName 'Adjust for Windows XP (virtually none of my company's workstations any more)
RegWrite HKEY_CURRENT_USER, "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}", "", strNewName 'This is the meaningful part for most of you, I believe.

Oh, and for the record, I have a specific log file that stores user, hostname, log ons/offs, and IP addresses. I use that to find their machine, but if they've recently logged on to more than one (not uncommon) or they had left a machine logged on from the day before which they'd returned to, this is a big time saver.

Really helpful. Strongly suggest it for any administrators who have a hard time identifying a user's specific machine.

in doing a bunch of tests, i believe it matters how you set the registry value.

you cannot do it within regedit.exe manually.

nor if i do it using a .reg file such as
it does not work and the icon says '%username% on %computername%' and not for instance 'ron on ron-pc'.


what does work is below. after hitting F5 the data of (Default) registry value immediately changes to 'ron on ron-pc' and so does the desktop icon. so based on all that, I would say DO NOT touch anything under the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT key, you don't have to worry about changing registry key/value permissions. only touch the HKEY_CURRENT_USER key value of (Default). I don't think you have to touch the LocalizedString value anywhere.

below works, pasting into a cmd prompt window or using in a .bat file