Used laptop change to my name

I acquired a used laptop and I want to change my name to the owner and administrator. How do I do this? I don't want to wipe the HD and install Win 11 fresh

Do a reset.

Gerry,

I suggest you do a full reinstall.
But, since you don't want to, I suggest:-
1 Create a user account of your own and make it Admin. Tutorial links are included in this article.
my ditty - Create two spare local, password-protected Admin accounts [post #2] in Windows 10, 11 - TenForums
2 What do you mean "owner"? Do you mean something that is shown when you use the command
WinVer
? That can be removed or changed easily but I wanted to check if that was what you meant first. It's actually quite meaningless as it is used nowhere else. But here's how to change it.
Change Registered Owner and Organization - ElevenForumTutorial
You can change this meaningless entry to whatever you want.
- -


Denis

What I have done, several times in rehabbing machines, is to create a new User as desired, reboot into that new User and remove the original. Main thing is the names between Users need to be slightly different, by at least one character, to avoid files going into the same folders.

Sorry @Try3, didn't see you typing.

GerryPeters said:

I acquired a used laptop and I want to change my name to the owner and administrator. How do I do this? I don't want to wipe the HD and install Win 11 fresh

Click to expand...

Welcome to Eleven Forum.

Try3 has already given you the answer I would have given you.

All my laptops were bought 'used', I generally do a clean install unless there's installed software (MS Office, for example) that I really want to keep.

What I mean by owner is when I start the computer it has the other person's name and it has that name listed as administrator and his email under account

You might want to decide if you also want to get rid of any garbage the previous owner installed. That is why the other suggestions.

PS: I would also run an sfc /scannow and DISM repair if necessary.

GerryPeters said:

What I mean by owner is when I start the computer it has the other person's name and it has that name listed as administrator and his email under account

Click to expand...

That's a user name, the user name of a user account.
So you can just create a new user account and log in to that instead. Make sure you make it an Admin account. Tutorial links are included in this article.
my ditty - Create two spare local, password-protected Admin accounts [post #2] in Windows 10, 11 - TenForums


Denis

I went to User acouunts and created a new account for me, but it still boots to the other account

I assume you have given your new user account a decent password which you have written down somewhere secure yet convenient and that you have made it an Admin account and that you have tested your new account by logging into it.

Set up NetPlWiz to automatically sign in your new account.
Enable or Disable Automatically Sign in Account at Startup - ElevenForumTutorials
If NetPlWiz does not display a checkbox, you'll first need to use this [I always use its Option 2, the .reg file]
Enable or Disable Passwordless Sign-in for Microsoft Accounts - ElevenForumTutorials


Denis

Do a clean install and get rid of all the garbage in it. You will also probably gain faster and better performance. Easier that way.

Gerry,

I forgot to ask.
Do you know about system imaging?
Once you have done your user account setting up it would be worth making a system image.
my ditty - File backup vs imaging, imaging utilities, backing up drivers [post #3] - TenForums


Denis

Log into the new account you created and delete the old user account(s).

I wouldn’t use it without a clean install or at least a reset. You’ve no idea what the previous owner has done on there.
If you login and delete the other account as suggested above, then do a reset - you can set up a new login from scratch after the reset - everything will be gone and it’ll be an out of box experience like a new laptop. It’s what the previous over should have done before you got it - for their own security as much as anything else.

GerryPeters said:

and his email under account

Click to expand...

If this is a laptop be sure to turn off device encryption if it is on.

GerryPeters said:

What I mean by owner is when I start the computer it has the other person's name and it has that name listed as administrator and his email under account

Click to expand...

I forgot to mention that when wanting that change is to first Sign out of the original then reboot which should give a choice between users.

I'm making some progress. At login I see my name and the bad name there. But I have so many MS passwords that I'm not sure what will work. I googled it and tried to sign into my MS account, the MS web site link that came up is MS 365. How do I log in to my MS account and test my password which I assume will be the same password I'll use to log into the laptop

You have only just created the new user account. You use the password you set up when you created it.
Go to
but never be surprised if MS redirects you to another page of theirs. They are gits like that.
If they do redirect you, there will be a sign-in button for your MSAccount somewhere on the page e.g.


And yes, if the new user account you created is an MSAccount then the password you use to sign-in to it on your computer is the same password that you can use to sign-in to it online. It's the same account all the time.
I just sign-in to my computer with a Local user account. I don't need or want syncing anything with anywhere so there's no point my using an MSAccount-linked user account.


By "bad" account, I assume you mean the user account that was already on the computer and which you wish to stop using.
I have resisted the urge to tell you to delete it. I suggest you leave it there unused until well after you have sorted things out in your new account [you might well want to dive in to the original account's folders to copy files form it].


Denis

GerryPeters said:

I went to User acouunts and created a new account for me, but it still boots to the other account

Click to expand...

It should show both users in a list bottom left hand side, click the user you want to log in.