Solved Renaming built-in Administrator account

[fredyman]

Hi

I am running Windows 8.1 Home edition, both on a Toshiba laptop and a Lenovo desktop - more correctly it is called "Windows 8.1 with Bing".

For security reasons, we are advised that we should change the name of the built-in Administrator account, but I can`t find any way to do it in Home edition.

I can activate the account using

"net user Administrator /active:yes"

but there doesn`t seem to be a way of changing the name.

In Windows 7 Pro, I can go to either of

- Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Computer Management / Local Users and Groups / Users,

or to

- Control Panel / User Accounts / Manage another account /

and I get the option to change the name of the Administrator account.

In Windows 8.1 Home, the first of the above GUI`s doesn`t exist, and the second one doesn`t give me the option of changing the Administrator account name, although I do get the option to add a password. I can rename other accounts.

The PC Settings tool doesn`t show the Administrator account at all.

Is there any way to rename the built-in Administrator account in Home edition ?

Thanks.

 

[Nuccii]

Here's a few ways to do so.

Built-in Administrator Account - Change Name - Windows 7 Help Forums

Guest Account - Change Name - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[fredyman]

Hi

Thank you for your reply to my post, and for the links - the most useful bit of information I got out of these pages was the existence of netplwiz.exe, which I have never heard of before.

It is a most useful tool, and allowed me to change the name of the built-in Administrator account - it works on Windows 7 Pro, Windows 7 Home, Windows 8.1 Home.

Some of the other things I have found that may be of interest to others -

The GUI at Control Panel / User Accounts gives you the option to change the name of an account - except it doesn`t do it. What it does is to add or change the full name associated with an account. It doesn`t change the username of the account.

It is the full name that appears on the login screen, but net user stills uses the original username.

The tool netplwiz.exe allows you to set or change both the username and the full name.

net user allows you to change the full name, but not the username.

net user has a lot of other useful options - I found that I could further restrict the built-in Guest account by using " net user Guest /Times: " - this resticts the times that the Guest account can login to zero, if ever the account gets activated. So another wee bit of security added.

Thank you for your assistance.

 

[Nuccii]

Your welcome

 

[Smarion]

Sounds like im already in 7 or 8...