I discussed elsewhere that your computer has two names associated with it—your account name and the computer's name. In another article, I talked about possible reasons why someone might want to rename their computer. In that article, I went over how you can change your computer name using PowerShell. PowerShell is not the only way you can change your computer's name, however. You can also use Command Prompt (CMD), and all you need is a simple command to easily make the change.
To use Command Prompt for this task, you will need to run it as an Administrator. To do this, start by pressing the Windows key and typing (without quotes) "CMD." Do not press Enter yet; Windows should show you a few options on the screen. Either right-click on the Command Prompt search result and choose "Run As Administrator" or press Ctrl+Shift+Enter. Regardless of the approach, Command Prompt launches in Admin mode. You will be able to tell it is in Admin mode if the resulting Command Prompt window shows "\Windows\system32>" as the prompt.
Next, enter the command below and press Enter. You need to change the last part of the command, "Computer-Name" to what you want your computer's name to be:
wmic computersystem where name="%computername%" call rename name="Computer-Name"
Once the command has finished, close the Command Prompt window and restart your machine for your name change to take effect.
Please remember that if you are part of a network administered by an IT administrator, they may not allow you to change your computer's name. If that is the case, contact your system administrator to see if they can assist you.
This tip (13811) applies to Windows 10.
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Bill Jeffrey
I recently changed the name of my Windows 10 computer from (let's say) JEFF-123 to JEFF-ABC. It was easily done from Start -> Control Panel -> System. However, the name of my computer appears to be resident in some additional place(s), and they didn't get the memo on the change. And sadly, one or more of those places seem to involve my computer's location on my local network. Did the name change described in this TIP intend to pick up all those places? Is there a list of places where the computer name resides? Any and all info would be welcome.
Jeff
Copyright © 2023 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
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