can i change user's short name?

[snowprof]

have had a change of heart and want to change my own user's "short name." (os 10.4.3, powerbook g4) i realize that i could delete myself as a user and give myself the new short name, but would that delete all of my files, apps, preferences and so on? please advise.

 

[blueflame]

nope

you cannot change the short name without creating a new account. there is some complicated way i was taught by apple tech like 4 years ago, im not sure it evne applies, but it has to do with logging into root and going ionto netinfo manager
be careful though, you can really screw stuff up
andreas

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

yeah, be really careful, something like this has happened before to me and my computer got (expletive). what you can do though, is go into (Hard Drive)> User> youruser and single click the name of your user. then you should be able to retype stuff in there. last time i did, it just saved my old user short name's .plist file... good luck

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

I used a utility that I found in an article on MacWorld to change my short user name. It has worked twice flawlessly for me, however, it does say that it could cause problems.

Here's the article:
Linky

 

[grapes911]

To do it right, follow Apple's directions.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106824

 

[Ti_Poussin]

Activate the root, boot in the root account, create a new account with the new names, copy your home folder stuff into the new account, delete the old account.