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Windows XP > Customizing Windows XP


Show User and Computer Name

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This simple registry hack will rename "My Computer" to "Username on Computername", whereby Username is the name of the currently logged on user, and Computername is the name of the computer.

While this is trivial in a home environment, it might be of some use in larger networks, making it simple to determine which computer you are logged on to and which username you are logged on as.

"My Computer" shows on the Desktop (not by default in a new Windows XP install), the Start menu and in Windows Explorer.

My Computer   USERNAME on COMPUTERNAME
USERNAME on COMPUTERNAME on the Start menu


  1. Start the Registry Editor
  2. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ CLSID \ {20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
  3. Right-click the value LocalizedString, and choose Rename, rename it to LocalizedString.old
  4. Select New > Expandable String Value from the Edit menu
  5. Name the new REG_EXPAND_SZ value LocalizedString
  6. Right-click the LocalizedString value and choose Modify
  7. In the Value Data: box enter %USERNAME% on %COMPUTERNAME%
  8. Exit the registry editor
  9. Click the desktop and press the F5 key. This will refresh your desktop, and rename the "My Computer" icon

To reverse, just delete the new LocalizedString value, and rename LocalizedString.old to LocalizedString.




Last Updated: November 29, 2002