Changing your identity in Windows 95




I know how to change the licensed user information stored in Windows 3.x and Windows for Workgroups. I'd like to do the same thing in Windows 95.
I've tried editing the contents of the serialno.ini file as you do in Windows 3.x, but it has no effect on the name displayed in the About Windows dialogue box.
- Gary Ware


Just when you were beginning to master the art of .ini file editing -- wham! It's a paradigm shift.
As you've probably heard a zillion times by now, Windows 95 and applications that are built for it store most of their configuration settings in the Registry rather than in .ini files. The Registry can be highly confusing, and Microsoft clearly didn't intend for the average user to start mucking around in it.
To change the licensed user data stored in the Registry, which you may want to do if you inherited your PC from someone else, follow the steps outlined below.
1. Back up these files in the Windows folder: user.dat, user.da0, system.dat, and system.da0. If you don't see these files, choose View--Options in My Computer or Explorer, click the View tab, select Show all files, and then click OK.
2. Select Start--Run, type regedit in the Open box of the Run dialogue box,and click OK to launch the Registry Editor.
3. Select Edit--Find in the Registry Editor dialogue box, enter RegisteredOwner in the Find What field of the Find dialogue box, make sure the Values check box is selected, and then click the Find Next button.
4. Double-click RegisteredOwner in the right-hand pane of the Registry Editor; then in the resulting dialogue box, replace the contents of the "Value data" field with whatever you want. Click OK and exit the Registry Editor.
Select Help--About Windows 95 in the Control Panel to see the alteration you've made. To change the organisation you're listed under, follow the same steps for RegisteredOrganization.
Note that these changes will not be reflected in your regular applications.
- Scott Spanbauer


Category: Win95
Issue: Nov 1996
Pages: 166-167

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