How do you find your Windows 10 computer when you need to connect it to a network? With his name. The device name is how you can identify your Windows 10 PC and connect via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. This is why having a computer name that is easy to identify is very important. But the default names assigned by Windows are often weird and hard to remember. So let’s find out how to change your PC name in Windows 10.
Page Contents:
There are many methods to change the name of your computer; you can find them all below. To be clear, the computer name is the name of the overall hardware system (desktop or laptop) and is not the same as the user account name. Unfortunately, some Windows 10 users get confused between the two.
You can then create more than one user account on the same computer (one for each family member) and give them different names. Therefore, a computer can have multiple user accounts. However, your Windows computer name will appear the same regardless of the user account you log in from. That said, if you just want to change the Windows 10 computer name, we tell you how. Read on.
How to choose a computer name
There are some Microsoft prescribed naming convention rules that you need to keep in mind before renaming your computer. You are free to use alphabets (az) and numbers (0-9) but not special characters. However, the hyphen (-) is allowed. The minimum character length is 1, and the maximum is 15. Also, note that Microsoft has reserved some words and cannot be used.
Changing the computer name will not change the path to the user profile folder if that is why you are doing it. For example, C:\Users\old-name will remain the same. This is because it is a username and not the name of the device or computer.
1. How to change the name of your Windows 10 PC via settings
This is where you’ll find all the settings you can use to tweak, configure and customize your Windows 10 computer.
- Press Windows key + I to open Settings and go to System> About. Then, click the Rename this PC button.
- A blue screen pop-up will appear where you can enter the new computer name. You will also get a notification of the current name.
- Click Next and enter the administrator account password if required. You will need to restart your computer once for the changes to take effect.
2. Windows system properties
There is another old-fashioned way to change Windows 10 PC name.
- Search for the Control Panel in the Start menu and open it.
- Go to System and Security> System> Advanced System Settings (left sidebar) and click Change Settings.
- Click the Change button on the Computer Name tab in the pop-up that follows.
- Enter the desired computer name in the box provided.
Save your changes and restart your computer.
3. Command Prompt (CMD)
The method of changing PC name via Command Prompt is for advanced users who like to use the command line interface (CLI). If you are not comfortable using the command prompt , skip this method.
- Search for CMD in the Start menu and click Run as administrator to open it with administrator rights.
- Give the command below and hit Enter to execute it. Don’t forget to replace the text “Computer-Name” with the name you want to give your computer.
wmic computersystem where name = “% computername%” call rename name = “Computer-Name”
Wait for the command to run its course, then restart your computer once to implement the changes.
4. PowerShell
PowerShell is the advanced version of the command prompt and is set to replace it in the future. So you better start getting used to it now.
- Search for PowerShell in the Start menu and open it with administrator rights. You can also use the Windows + X hotkey to open a hidden menu.
- Type the command below and press Enter. Replace the last part, “Computer-Name,” with the name you want to give your computer.
Rename-Computer -NewName “Computer-Name”
Restart your computer. That’s all.
What’s your name?
Now that you know several methods to change the Windows 10 computer name, you should give it a name. I wouldn’t say the same for a business computer because they are linked to a system and have multiple admin-level apps installed that rely on the computer name to function properly. More importantly, your IT administrator may have prevented you from making those changes. Better if you send him an email.
Previous versions of Windows required users to choose a name when installing the Windows operating system, but this is no longer the case with Windows 10. Note that changing the computer name in Windows 10 may require you to reconnect devices Bluetooth like TWS and WiFi, yes, but in the end, that’s all there is to it. Again, not a big deal and shouldn’t take more than a few moments.
