Changing an account short name in Leopard

[Objectivist-C]

I notice that the advanced options in the Accounts prefpane include the ability to change an account's short name. Has anyone been brave enough to try this? How did it go?

 

[erandall38]

I notice that the advanced options in the Accounts prefpane include the ability to change an account's short name. Has anyone been brave enough to try this? How did it go?

I went to pref pane for accounts but where does it allow you to change the account short name, I am not seeing it anywhere. I thought his was the thing during registration of your Mac that it said you could not change?

 

[dstein]

uh...screenshot? i think youre mistaken...

 

[Objectivist-C]

You need to click on the padlock to authenticate, then right-click on an account name.

 

[erandall38]

You need to click on the padlock to authenticate, then right-click on an account name.

wow never knew that was there. How did you go about just right clicking and finding that?

Not sure if I would mess with that.

 

[Objectivist-C]

How did you go about just right clicking and finding that?

Crazy voodoo.

Not sure if I would mess with that.

Me neither, hence the topic.

 

[pknz]

Hmm what's the Group ID?

I like the warning.

 

[Objectivist-C]

It works without issue. The steps:

1. Change your short name and home folder location under Advanced Options
2. Run

sudo mv /Users/old /Users/new

in Terminal
3. Reboot

 

[NAG]

Just for future reference I'd be careful with changing the short user name. It usually doesn't cause any problems but some things can get confused if you do it (an old version of Netscape comes to mind).

 

[Objectivist-C]

Yeah, I realized afterwards that it hosed my Dashboard setup, but no other unexpected issues so far.

 

[anti-microsoft]

It works without issue. The steps:

1. Change your short name and home folder location under Advanced Options
2. Run

sudo mv /Users/old /Users/new

in Terminal
3. Reboot

I've got doubts about this...

1. Do you change the short name and the home directory? (ex. Jim->Pete and Users/Jim -> Users/Pete)

2. In the code do you have to replace users/old and users/new with your old and new short names? (ex. users/jim users/pete)

Thanks,

Ams.

 

[JediMeister]

Apple posted an article about this some time ago...

here

 

[Objectivist-C]

I've got doubts about this...

1. Do you change the short name and the home directory? (ex. Jim->Pete and Users/Jim -> Users/Pete)

2. In the code do you have to replace users/old and users/new with your old and new short names? (ex. users/jim users/pete)

Thanks,

Ams.

Yes and yes, or just follow the steps in the article linked above.

 

[anti-microsoft]

Yes and yes, or just follow the steps in the article linked above.

Thanks! Really appreciate it!

Ams.