Change name of mac

[sunfast]

I bought my iMac from eBay and it was called "imac" which I tried to change to "Tim". It didn't seem to like this too much as my home folder is still called imac yet other things seem to be called Tim. Can I make it all "Tim"?

 

[swiftaw]

The name of your Mac and the name of your home folder are two different things. You can change the name of your Mac by going to System preferences -> Sharing.

Your home folder name is governed by the name of your user account. Create another user with the account name of your choice and your home folder will have that name too.

 

[mad jew]

Better yet, reinstall the OS. It's a cleaner solution and I recommend doing it after buying a used machine. 🙂

 

[sunfast]

Better yet, reinstall the OS. It's a cleaner solution and I recommend doing it after buying a used machine. 🙂

I do want to do this - somehow feels nicer to have it all "clean". However - mine didn't come with disks, so can I just by Tiger from eBay and do it that way? Any pitfalls to watch out for?

 

[jsw]

I do want to do this - somehow feels nicer to have it all "clean". However - mine didn't come with disks, so can I just by Tiger from eBay and do it that way? Any pitfalls to watch out for?

I think that's a great idea - that way, you'd have the disk in case you needed it later on.

One thing, though... iLife is not part of Tiger, so you'd need to get that too. But it'd undoubtedly be better than the version on the iMac.

 

[Nickygoat]

I do want to do this - somehow feels nicer to have it all "clean". However - mine didn't come with disks, so can I just by Tiger from eBay and do it that way? Any pitfalls to watch out for?

You won't have iLife if you buy a straight Tiger disc (I think). Can't you get the original discs from the guy that sold it?
EDIT: I type too slowly 😀

 

[p0intblank]

My new PowerBook G4 came with a preset name, too. I think it was because CompUSA installed an extra 512 MB stick of RAM for me. One of these days I'll restore it to a clean start. 🙂

Actually, while we are on the topic and if you mind my asking, but...

When I do decide to do a clean install on my PowerBook, will upgrading to Tiger be a problem? I got my PowerBook while 10.3 was the current OS. I still have the system discs and everything, but we have the Tiger family pack also. Will my upgrading use up one of the licenses even though I already had it installed before hand? Thanks!

 

[sunfast]

ok - I now have a shiny copy of Tiger!

But what's the best way to do a clean install so that I get to give the mac a new name etc... without screwing up my files and having to reinstall all my apps. Or is there no easy way of doing that?

 

[matticus008]

ok - I now have a shiny copy of Tiger!

But what's the best way to do a clean install so that I get to give the mac a new name etc... without screwing up my files and having to reinstall all my apps. Or is there no easy way of doing that?

When you boot from the install DVD, there will be an "options" buttons near the bottom of one of the first few screens. From there, choose "Archive and Install" which will give you a clean start but preserve almost all of your applications.

EDIT: While we're talking about this, though, reinstalling is NOT the only way to change the "short" name. There is a tool for doing this. The computer name and user long name are easily changed in System Preferences. I've used the short name utility several times in the past for various users and it saves quite a bit of time.

 

[bu113t]

When you boot from the install DVD, there will be an "options" buttons near the bottom of one of the first few screens. From there, choose "Archive and Install" which will give you a clean start but preserve almost all of your applications.

EDIT: While we're talking about this, though, reinstalling is NOT the only way to change the "short" name. There is a tool for doing this. The computer name and user long name are easily changed in System Preferences. I've used the short name utility several times in the past for various users and it saves quite a bit of time.

You can download a utility to change the shortname here:
http://homepage.mac.com/frakes/MOSXPT/content/shortusername.html
There are also instructions for doing it manually...