Changing the registered Name/Organization in Vista

[EddieVanDerbeck]

Today's how-tois one more registry edit thatI have used a few times now to change the registered name and registered company name that is stored in Vista. The first time I did this was because I had a typo in my own name. Yea, my own name. Chalk it up to fat fingers and not having my glasses on I suppose. Sure I could have just done a re-install, but that takes time and effort. I like quick and easy. Any way, this will work equally well for other situations where you wish to alter the original registrant info of your install quickly such as when transferring your system to another party, name change, etc. It's a registry edit so you will need to be comfortable using the regedit.exe utility. The last registry how-to for a while. I promise. Really.

GBM How-To Series # 18 : Changing the registered Name and Organization in Vista
Step 1: Start the registry Editor
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Start the registry editor by entering regedit.exe into the "start search" bar of the Vista start menu. Sure there are other ways to get to it, but let's keep it simple for now. </BLOCKQUOTE>
Step 2 : Find the correct registry entry
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Once in the registry editor, navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion key. Highlight the CurrentVersion key and look for the RegisteredOwner and RegisteredOrganizationstrings in the right window. </BLOCKQUOTE>
Step 3 : Edit the key
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Right-Click and select modify on each or either of them to edit (or clear) the registered owner/organization information. Then OK when finished.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
Step 4 : All Done
Once you are finished editing them, close the registry editor. No restart of your system is required for this fix.

Tips and Notes:
<UL>
<LI>
<DIV align=left>If you have any doubts about editing the registry, BACK IT UP WITH THE EXPORT COMMAND!
<LI>
<DIV align=left>The Registry Editor will take you right back to the last place you were editing when you left.</LI>[/list]<DIV =wlWriterSmartContent id=0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:f994c2c4-5efa-48a4-8128-b3779f2397eb contentEditable=false style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; DISPLAY: inline; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px">Technorati Tags: GottaGeMobile.com How-To, Vista, Registrant Information, Regedit

[blademonkey]

Hey Eddie,

Nice tip. I decided to make it into an app.
I blurbed about on my blog here:
http://codescribes.blogspot.com/2007/07/windows-registration-information.html

you can download it directly from here:
http://www.drivehq.com/file/df.aspx/publish/blademonkey/codescribes/RegisterOwner.exe

let me know what you all think.

thanks


Note: you must have admin level access to you PC have this work. Edited by: blademonkey

[EddieVanDerbeck]

It reads the info... I cannot get it to save correctly. Any Ideas?

[blademonkey]

you have to have read/write priviledges to that registry key, IE you need to have local administrative priviledges when you run it. Or you can do a Runas (hold the KB shift key while you right click on the EXE).

Let me know, I initially wrote in a isadmin() method in the app, but it got annoying when i was testing it.

Also, i did not write a confirmation message for when it writes "successfully" or "unsuccessfully", mainly because i wasn't sure if anyone was interested in this app. this means that after you hit "apply changes" the only real way to know if it works or not, is to either 1) check the actual reg keys or 2) reload the app and do a "get info".

I'll update the app to be more friendly.

let me know if you can think of any more features that you would like to see on it. Edited by: blademonkey