"Kathy" wrote in message
...

Is there a way to change the name a computer is registered to. We
have a
laptop in our organization that we want to give to another employee
but it
was registered to another name when it was setup orginally. Is there
anyway
to change the name after it's been registered?

Define "give". Are you removing the laptop from company assets
(because its depreciation reached the end of the tax cycle assigned to
this asset or because there is a policy to replace computers after N
number of years)? Are you selling off the laptop (which should be
done even if the price is zero dollars to prove transfer of ownership
of, at least, the hardware so the buyer can prove it is their asset
now)? Even if you are donating the laptop (not likely since it is a
current employee and donations come under strict requirements for
businesses), a sale of the laptop is still required to prove transfer
of ownership.

The new owner doesn't care what is the old registered name stored in
the registry of the currently installed OS. The new owner should be
formatting the partition(s) and doing a FRESH install of the operating
system. In fact, it is highly unwise for any company to distribute
old hardware where the hard disk was not wiped before transferring
ownership. If the new owner cannot install the OS, it is because you
did not provide a legal copy of that OS. Unless you surrended
installation media for the OS along with the license to it, all the
new owner got was hardware that included a polluted hard drive.

The registered company name hardly identifies who is the owner of a
computer. More than just a name, the rest of the files on that
computer identify that computer as your property. So it behooves the
new owner to wipe and install fresh. Besides, if it is your intent to
supply a polluted hard drive because you are too lazy to wipe it
yourself, it is not your job to change the registered company name in
that OS instance. Have the new owner come here to ask that question.

Either wipe the drive (and include the installation media for the OS
to provide a legit license to the new owner) or tell the new user that
they are getting a polluted hard drive and should wipe and install.
However, due to legal liabilities, your company is the one that should
really do the wipe.