Renaming Your Computer

by Barry Dysert
(last updated November 10, 2014)

2

Renaming your computer is a simple task that can make your personal computer a bit more, well, personal. There are a couple of ways to do it:

  • If you are using Windows 7, click the Start button, right-click on Computer, select Properties, then click the "Advanced system settings" link on the left side of the window.
  • If you are using Windows 7 or Windows 8, display the Control Panel, click the "System and Security" link, click "See the name of this computer" under the "System" group, then click the "Advanced system settings" link on the left side of the window.

Either method will take you to the System Properties dialog box. Make sure the Computer Name tab is displayed. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Computer Name tab of the System Properties window.

The name given to your computer is shown to the right of the Full Computer Name label. To change the name of your computer, click the Change button. Windows displays the Computer Name/Domain Changes dialog box. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. The Computer Name/Domain Changes window.

Your computer name is in the top textbox. To change it, delete what's there, enter the new name, and click OK. You will need to reboot your computer for the name to go into full effect.

Note that you may not have permission to change the name of a company computer. And even if you do, you likely don't have permission to change the record in the domain name server. To change the name of your computer on your company's network, you will probably need to get your network administrator involved.

 This tip (12147) applies to Windows 7 and 8.

Author Bio

Barry Dysert

Barry has been a computer professional for over 30 years, working in different positions such as technical team leader, project manager, and software developer.  He is currently a senior software engineer with an emphasis on developing custom applications under Microsoft Windows. ...

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What is three minus 2?

2014-11-10 09:57:22

Barry

I haven't tried it, but I don't see why renaming your computer would have anything to do with searching for files. File names aren't qualified by the computer name.

2014-11-10 09:39:53

David Smith

Will changing the name of my computer in any way make it difficult (or impossible) to search for and find files that were created under the old computer name? Thank you.

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