setup glitch

Hello,

I've just today gotten my Dell Inspiron finally in operational order (long story, see (Dell Inspiron) No bootable device for most of it).

So now I'm on hard drive #3 for a 5-month-old computer. A week ago, when I got my computer back from a Dell repair center with hard drive #2 freshly installed and I went through the initial setup, on the first screen - where you choose your computer name and user name - it flashed by after I'd only clicked on a letter or two. I thought it was my own clumsy fingers, so when I began setup of hard drive #3 this afternoon, shortly after a Dell tech replaced my hard drive on my turf, I was very focused and careful to type deliberate keys. HOWEVER, after entering just ONE letter, the setup flashed not only past screen #1, but also past screen #2 (password selection). Now, this has to be a glitch with the keyboard or something, because no way did I screw this up twice!

Anyway, I was able to back up to screen #2, but screen #1 was no longer accessible. This leaves me with a computer that shows up on the network as "R".

I've gone into user accounts and changed the account name, but when I want to access user files like AppData, they still show up as R. Is there a way to fix this?

I'm not afraid of the registry, so if that's what it takes, I just need a little guidance.

Why use the Dell preinstalled WIn7 which is the worst possible install of WIn7 one can have, larded with bloatware and duplicate utilities which interfere with better versions built into Win7?

Instead do what most tech enthusiasts do and Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 using the latest official bootable installer for your licensed version with the Product Key on COA sticker on machine. This is the best possible install of Win7 one can have.

First run Dell diagnostics by rebooting and tapping the F12 key to choose Diagnostics. If it runs and confirms good hardware, from the booted Win7 installer delete all partitions except OEM (Diagnostics) Tools, create and Format a New C partition using the Drive Options shown in Steps 7 and 8 of Clean Install Windows 7

Thanks for the response Greg. Doing the full monty that you've described is a bit drastic and more than I'm prepared to (I come from an old school of "death before reinstall/reformat" :) ) - I'm already set up with programs, etc. and don't want to have to go thru all that yet again.

Honestly, I didn't think there would be a simple registry edit solution, but I was hopeful. I can live with it this way.

You'd need to do more than change the old account name. You need to delete the old account after creating a new one to replace it. Otherwise it's name will never change completely.

From User Profile Folder - Change User Account Folder Name - Windows 7 Help Forums:

The only true way to remove the old name of the user account is to create a new account of the same type (standard or administrator) as the old one, then delete the old user account while logged in the new one. Be sure to backup anything that you do not want to lose from the old account first though. For example, shortcuts, Start Menu shortcuts, files inside the user folders, etc....

Hi Sandeep, I already changed the computer name, it's just the user name on the network that I'm trying to update.

@gregrocker: I hadn't even thought of simply creating a new user, and I guess that's going to be the easiest thing to do. When I've had enough of "R", I'll do just that. In the meantime, I'm happy my computer finally seems to be operating normally. :)