How do I change my administrator's name and elimnate the photo icon?

In that case, try posting in the Using Mac OS X 10.3 and earlier forum.
However, I don't think it's doable in anything earlier than leopard, without a LOT more work on your part-creating a new user and renaming the home folder would do it, I think, but it would be best to check in that forum before trying.

Good luck!

If you want to change the short name, it is doable, but hard. Post back if you want to do so.

Changing the user name is MUCH easier. Just go to >System Preferences...>Accounts, unlock the lock, and type a new user name.

I am not sure if it is possible to eliminate the icon, but you can change it to something else (by clicking it in the accounts preference pane, and selecting a new one).

Good luck!

Message was edited by: joshz

to change that name first log into an admin account different than the one you are changing.

Next, run the following command in terminal

*sudo dscl . -change /users/shortusername RealName "Old Full Name" "New Full Name"*

in the above put that user's short username instead of shortusername, and old and new full names in the appropriate places. keep the quotation marks in the above.

Also, *please make sure* that you've entered the command correctly before pressing enter. I suggest you copy and paste the above and make the necessary changes there.


You'll be prompted for your admin password which you won't see. that's normal.

As for the picture, i don't think you can get rid of it altogether but you can change it to something you like by clicking on it in the account preferences.

Josh
I'd like to change the short name. As I see it there might be two ways:

1. Add an account and give it admin privileges (but this does not make the account co-equal and I can't delete the real admin acct). Then run a utility that will swap privileges and then delete the old admin acct.

2. Change the underlying origin short name per some method you can recommend.

Whichever works is fine by me. I can use the Terminal program.

Pls advise. Thanks. Mike

First, BACKUP!!! (in case you mess something up)

Here are the steps: (you should disable auto-log in and file vault before continuing, then LOG OUT of the account you want to modify -DON'T just use fast user switching. LOG IN TO A DIFFERENT ACCOUNT FROM THE ONE YOU ARE MODIFYING)
1. Click >System Preferences...>Accounts.
2. Unlock the lock, if necessary.
3. Control click your user's name, and click "Advanced options".
4. In the "advanced" pane, highlight the "Short name" field, and replace it with the desired new short name.
5. In the Home Directory field, change /Users/oldusername to /Users/newusername, where oldusername is your original short username and newusername is your new short username. Write down the original and new paths.
6. Click OK and quit system preferences.
7. Open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal
8. Copy the blue text, and press enter, but REPLACE '/Users/oldusername' and '/Users/newusername' with the correct paths, which you wrote down in step 5.: sudo mv /Users/oldusername /Users/newusername

9. Press enter, and type your password. When the prompt comes back, restart your mac.

Good luck!

Changing the short username in 10.5 is MUCH easier than it was in 10.4.

System Preferences -> Accounts -> unlock the padlock -> right click your account -> Advanced options -> change the short user name.

Király wrote:
Changing the short username in 10.5 is MUCH easier than it was in 10.4.

System Preferences -> Accounts -> unlock the padlock -> right click your account -> Advanced options -> change the short user name.

Yes, but that won't change the name of the home folder to match the new short name.
It all depends on Mike's preference.

My bad. I neglected to mention that I am using OS X 10.3.9. Probably why I couldn't get the Advanced options to come up. ;>)

So reset and pls provide info on how to do this for 10.3.

Thx, Mike

PS - will 10.5 work on a G4 processor?

Just to close out my part on this message. There is a utility called ChangeShortName (Google name and download the donationware program, .pdf doc, and shell script in a .dmg file).

The .pdf doc explains the changes for 10.3 and 10.4 and has diffs for 10.5. 10.2 and earlier may require special handling. Also tells you how to back out changes if the ride gets bumpy.

Oh Yes. You can change the long and short names to all CAPS as you wish.

thx for the help, Mike

hey joshz... your method sounds pretty tempting to follow. however, i called apple's technical support and they told me that while you can change the short name and the home name, it's not advisable since files and applications might get corrupted..

will your method guarantee a safe change of short name and home name? today's the first time i opened my recently purchased macbook but then i messed up and put in the wrong short name..

whaddya think?

Welcome to Discussions, Fidel!

If you follow all of those steps TO THE LETTER, then you'll be fine.

Just to be sure you'll be fine, make SURE you have a backup before you proceed.

Good luck!

Thank you so much, joshz!

One last thing though. Do I have to take note of the capital letter in my short name and home name if I type these in the Terminal? Say, if I'm going to put in "Fidel" for both the short name and home name in the Advanced pane, will I also have to type in a capital letter "F" in the Terminal?

Apologies if I'm being too obsessive-compulsive 🙂

Hey, it's me again. I followed every step until I got to the Terminal part. When I had to put in my password, I didn't know whether I should put in the password of the account I wanted to modify or the password of where I was currently logged in. What's worse was that the field did not allow me to view the password I was typing and so there's this fear that I may have put in a wrong one.

I kinda forgot what the Terminal said after I put in a password but it sure sounded kinda negative. I decided to redo the whole "sudo mv" step but Terminal didn't elicit the supposed response.

How would I know if I either put in a right or wrong password? How would it respond? What can I do to remedy the situation if indeed I put in a wrong password?

Thing is, by the way, when I restarted my Mac, my short user name and its home directory actually changed to what I desired it to be. But then there's this lingering feeling that I may have done something wrong during the Terminal part of the process which, I guess, might probably result to undesired consequences in the future. What should I do?

Thanks!

hey it's me again.. i recently discovered that my old home directory is still inside the users folder along with the current home directory... does that mean something? is it okay to delete the old home directory?