Login name appears as full name - how to change to short name?

Thanks, macjack, but that didn't work. It changed the appearance in the login list, but still shows my full name in authentication boxes. Unless I need to restart to make it effective?

Yes, my first name is the same as my short name. I guess I can leave it (oh, my OCD!) but, it's surprising to me to see it like that. Leopard (10.5) had a preference, if I remember right, where I could select either the full name or the shortname to appear in the login box.

I am also connected to a server, which Snow Leopard recognized while I was installing. Perhaps it's matching the server settings?

macjack wrote:
Whatever you do, do *NOT attempt to change your Home folder short name!!* That will screw up your account settings but good.

Wasn't even thinking of going there. I've done a short name change before - it's complicated, dangerous, and best left to somebody who knows exactly what they're doing (or doesn't mind restoring their system from scratch on a whim). There's no need for that here, for certain!

Also, do you know what else might be affected by changing the full name in this way? What else uses that value?

It did say 'managed', but it turned out the parental controls were turned on somehow. I turned those off, and it no longer says 'managed'. I'll check the settings on the server side. Thanks, captfred.

I still don't know whether it's because of the server connection, but I re-installed SL on another Mac on my network - and it did it again. Initially, when I do the install, the account I create shows as Admin. After a couple of reboots, though, it invariably becomes "Admin, Managed" - and the parental controls are turned on.

The fix is easy, as suggested above:

= create a second Admin account,
= log out of the first account,
= log in as the new Admin account,
= remove the Parental Controls checkmark from the first account,
= log out of the new account, and
= log back into the first account.

Irritating to have to do, but the Admin setting seems to stick after this process. You can delete the new account once you have fixed the settings on the real Admin account.

If your issue is a little different than this, you might want to go ahead and start a new thread. Since this one is marked answered, it might get little notice.