How To Change/Rename Computer Name In Windows 10?

Windows uses the Computer Name in order to identify uniquely from other computers. Windows provides different methods to name or rename or change the name of the computer.

Change/Rename Computer Name via About

The official and GUI way of changing the computer name is using the Windows About screen. The About screen provides some basic information about Windows and the ability to rename the computer. Use Start Menu-> Settings -> System -> About to open the About screen or directly type “about” to the Start Menu like below.

Open System About from Start Menu

In the About screen the current name of the system is listed as “Device name”. Also the “Rename this PC” button is used to change computer name. Just click to the “Rename button” to change windows name.

Change Windows Names from System About

The following “Rename your PC” screen will appear. We will type the new computer name into the text box and click on the “Next” button. The computer name may contain letters uppercase or lowercase, hyphens, and numbers. No other character can be used in a computer name. In this case, we will set the new windows system name as “MYPC“.

Rename your PC

In order to make the new windows system name active, the system should be restarted. The following screen provides “Restart now” and “Restart later” options. The restart now restarts the system right now in order to make the new windows system name active. Restart later will exit from this screen and the new windows system name will be active after the first restart.

Rename Your PC Restart Now or Later

Change/Rename Computer Name via System Properties

The same windows system name change or rename can be done via the System Properties screen. The system properties can be opened in different ways. But most practical way is used the “sysdm.cpl” command which will open it directly. This command can be executed via MS-DOS or PowerShell or put into Start Menu to list or via Windows Run.

Open System Properties via Windows Run

In the system properties screen we will click to the “Change” button which is used to rename the computer. Also this way the computer can be joined into a domain too.

Open Computer Name/Domain Changes Screen via System Properties

In the following screen we will put the new windows system name into the “Computer name:” configuration. then click to the OK button.

Computer Name/Domain Changes

In order to make the new windows system name active, the system should be restarted. The following screen provides “Restart now” and “Restart later” options. The restart now restarts the system right now in order to make the new windows system name active. Restart later will exit from this screen and the new windows system name will be active after the first restart.

Change/Rename Computer Name via MS-DOS or PowerShell Command Line Interface

Environment variables are used to provide basic information about the Windows system. The computer name is also stored and provided as an environment variable where it can be changed by setting “$env:COMPUTERNAME” . In the following example, we will change the windows system name to “MYPC”. This command works both MS-DOS and PowerShell.

$env:COMPUTERNAME = "MYPC"

Change/Rename Computer Name via wmic

The wmic command is used to list, set, and change different system configurations in Windows. This command can be also used to change or rename the windows computer name. The command is a bit complex but just put the new windows computer name instead of the MYPC which is the new name in the following example.

wmic ComputerSystem where "name='%ComputerName%'" call rename MyPC
Change/Rename Computer Name via wmic

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