Home Folder Shortname change still not adviseable if nothing in folder?

[Jenita]

Hi everyone,

I know the Home Folder short name changing issue has been discussed already on here, and most people seem to advise either against it or to backup before proceeding.

I just obtained my first MacBook Pro second hand, and it still has the previous owner's Home Folder and Short Name, even though he has deleted all his files from it, and there's only pretty much standard folders within it (Library, Applications), but nothing in them. I've been saving my own stuff elsewhere in another folder I created on the Mac HD drive.

Is it fairly safe then to change his name over to my own following the steps on the Apple website, or would his home still be attached to certain important components? I'd rather not create a brand new account where I have to fiddle with settings again for everything, though I'm not sure if I may have to do that anyway. I'm using Leopard, by the way.

The login he passed on at start-up still says administrator as a user name, though, not his shortname. Will that change also?

Any advice on best way to go would be much appreciated! Sorry if these questions seem a bit simplistic.

Thanks a bunch.

 

[RoninXI]

I recommend making a new account for yourself, logging into it and in account settings remove that user and choose to delete the folder. You will know all the settings are fresh and no bad plist files can creep up later. This will also make your own username and password so you are not stuck with remembering his.

I know you didn't want to make a new user account but this is the time to do it, not after you have all your own personal settings. It will give a sense of completion to it being yours instead of "if I install this will it have strange settings" and no worries about if something in the library folder was deleted that shouldn't have been.