How do I change the username etc in a second-hand Mac?

[AVR2]

I've just sold my old PB G4 to a friend, and he obviously wants to change the home directory etc to his name rather than mine. Is there any way of doing that short of a complete reinstall?

 

[WildCowboy]

You should do a complete reinstall...you really should get rid of all of your data and personal information that might be on there.

It can be done, however. Apple has a 40-step procedure for doing so, but they strongly recommend against doing it.

 

[AVR2]

Thanks

 

[davidjearly]

I've just sold my old PB G4 to a friend, and he obviously wants to change the home directory etc to his name rather than mine. Is there any way of doing that short of a complete reinstall?

I think a much easier way of doing this would be to just create a new user in your friend's name and log out of the current user. Then log in to the new user and delete the old account in System Preferences.

All the applications will be saved and all that will be lost is the personal user files. If you want to save any of these, back them up externally to HDD/Flash drive or copy them into the public shared folder on your Mac.

Additionally, you might want to change your PowerBook's name which can be done in System Preferences/Sharing

Much easier than the 40 step process unless you are interested in doing the reinstall.

David

 

[RedTomato]

The 40 step process isn't that hard. Most of the steps are things like 25: press <return>, 26: go to desktop, 27: click on 'my computer' etc. Nice and detailed.

I am not sure if creating a new Admin account and deleting the old one would work. I did something like this when I first got my Powerbook and screwed up the OS (or it might have been something else I did).

Up to you which one you try, but be prepared for a reinstall.

I have the same issue with an iBook a staffer returned when leaving our company - I have to change the admin account names, and I've been putting it off.

 

[davidjearly]

The 40 step process isn't that hard. Most of the steps are things like 25: press <return>, 26: go to desktop, 27: click on 'my computer' etc. Nice and detailed.

I am not sure if creating a new Admin account and deleting the old one would work. I did something like this when I first got my Powerbook and screwed up the OS (or it might have been something else I did).

Up to you which one you try, but be prepared for a reinstall.

I have the same issue with an iBook a staffer returned when leaving our company - I have to change the admin account names, and I've been putting it off.

It might not be hard, but it is unnecessarily complex and drawn out.

What I described works 100% of the time unless the machine is corrupted or something else which can't be predicted.

You don't need to change any account names. Just create new accounts, log out and erase the old. In the words of Steve Jobs: 'Boom!' and you're done.

If you want to save some of the files then do so, but this is 100% an easier, more reliable method of altering the user accounts on any Mac running OS X.

David

EDIT: I don't disagree though that a reinstall would likely be better still, but it is more time consuming and not everyone can be bothered going to that extent.

 

[koobcamuk]

I agree with David on this one. It's what I have done in the past, and were I to exchange my MacBook for, what shall I say, a powerbook 12" then I would expect either myself or the user at the other end to be given access to perform this procedure

PS Nice website David.