Changing "Short Name" in user account

H

Halcyon

macrumors 6502

Original poster

• Mar 23, 2008

• #1

Is it possible to change the "short name" of a user account, once it has been created.

My administrator account name is "Mac 17" and the short name is "Ocean". Short of creatig a second administrator account with any other name, so I can delete the Mac 17 account and afterwards create another administrator account naming it Mac 17 and the short name I need, so I can delete the second account...I can't figure another way to do it. My question is, if this will break any preferences, paths, etc. within the system?

The reason why I want to do this is more "cosmetic" than anything else. I want one computer to be Mac 17 and short name Ocean 17 and the second one to be Mac 20 and Ocean 20.

TIA

 

::Lisa::

macrumors 6502a

• Mar 23, 2008

• #2

The short name is the home name right? *scratches chin lol* If so, it's a huge PITA to change it.

See here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106824

Good luck.

 

H

Halcyon

macrumors 6502

Original poster

• Mar 23, 2008

• #3

Yes, home name = short name. Read the article you provided the link to and it is a real PITA!

Better leave it the way it is and next time think real well before assigning the short name.

Thanks for your help.

 

H

Halcyon

macrumors 6502

Original poster

• Apr 14, 2008

• #4

Thanks Lisa...your link provided Apple's procedure but for 10.3.9 or earlier systems.

This just came out in MacWorld and it's for Leopard:

http://www.macworld.com/article/132693/2008/03/changeshortusername.html?t=101

So it's doable.

Thanks again.

 

S

skybolt

macrumors 6502a

• Apr 15, 2008

• #5

There is/was a little freeware app called ChangeShortName that would do this. Don't know if it has been upgraded for Leopard or not. Have never used it, so can't speak from experience, but might be worth a look.

 

darthraige

macrumors 68000

• May 8, 2008

• #6

I just renamed the short name in the finder and it took it. But something weird happened. Not sure if that is the right way to go, or how good that idea worked.

I myself zipped past the install and it took my full name as the short name. So annoying. I don't want to risk screwing up my system again by changing it, so I might just deal with it. I mean 18 characters is not that bad. 😕

 

Mal

macrumors 603

• May 8, 2008

• #7

darthraige said:

I just renamed the short name in the finder and it took it. But something weird happened. Not sure if that is the right way to go, or how good that idea worked.

I myself zipped past the install and it took my full name as the short name. So annoying. I don't want to risk screwing up my system again by changing it, so I might just deal with it. I mean 18 characters is not that bad. 😕

Click to expand...

Yeah, there's a reason why Apple made it so you can't rename the home folder in the Finder in 10.5. Definitely not a good idea. You'll find lots of bad results come from that, the system basically loses where your files are in a lot of instances.

jW