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How to Change Computer Name in Windows 10

After installing Windows, it gives your PC a random name. If you don’t like it, follow the steps to change the computer name in Windows 10.

Recently, I wanted to convert my old PC to a media server. That way, my family can access and stream media content on their smartphones, TV, and other devices without actually downloading the content. While configuring the computer, I saw that Windows gave the system a random name.

Generally, this is not bad because you don’t have to worry about the system name.

However, when you have multiple PCs connected to the same network in your home or office, it can be confusing to recognize a particular PC using the default names. Thankfully, you have multiple ways to change the computer name in Windows 10.

So, if you ever need it, here’s how to change the PC name in Windows 10.

Jump to:

Change Windows 10 Computer Name from Settings

The new settings app in Windows 10 makes it relatively easy to change the computer name. All you have to do is find the relevant option, type a new name, and you are good to go.

1. Open the Settings app with Win + I keyboard shortcut or click on the “All Settings” button in the Notification Center.

2. In the Settings app, go to “System” and then to the “About” page. This is where you will see basic system details like your processor model name & number, Windows activation status, Windows 10 version, etc. Under the Device Specification section, click on the “Rename this PC” button.

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3. The above action will open a prompt. Type the new computer name and click the “Next” button here. In my case, the new computer name will be “MediaPC.”

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4. To make the changes take effect, you must restart your system. So, click the “Restart Now” button.

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After restarting, go to the same settings page, and you should see the updated computer name next to “Device name” under the Device Specifications section.

Control Panel Option to Modify Computer Name in Windows 10

If you are on an older Windows version like 7 or 8, you can use the good old control panel to change the computer name. The same is true for Windows 10. Follow the below steps as is, and you will be good.

1. To open the control panel, search for it in the start menu and click on it.

Start menu control panel search item

2. Once the control panel is opened, select the “Large icons” option from the dropdown menu next to “View by,” appearing a the top-right corner.

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3. Next, find the “System” option and click on it.

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4. Here, in this window, you will find all the essential details like system configuration, Windows activation status, etc. Click on the ” Change settings ” link; since we want to change the computer name, click on the “Change settings” link.

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5. The above action will open the system properties window. Here, click on the “Change” button.

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6. Enter a new name under the Computer Name field and click on the “Ok” button.

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7. You will see a warning prompt saying that you are required to restart the computer to make the changes take effect. Click on the “Ok” button to continue.

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8. In this prompt, click the “Restart” button to reboot the system.

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After rebooting, follow the first three steps, and you should see the new name next to the “Computer Name” in the System window.

Command Prompt Command to Change Computer Name

If needed, you can use a single-line command to change the computer name in Windows.

1. Search for “cmd” in the start menu, right-click, and select “Run as administrator.” In Windows 11, you can open Terminal and then open a new Command Prompt window.

Open command prompt as admin

2. Before you can change the system name, you need to know its current name. To do that, execute the below command, and the command prompt will spit out the current PC name.

hostname
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3. Once you have the name, execute the below command while replacing CurrentPCName with the current name you’ve seen earlier and NewPCName with the actual new name you want to set. In my case, the new computer name is “MediaPC.” You will see the “Method Execution Successful” output if the command is successfully executed.

WMIC computersystem where caption="CurrentPCName" rename "NewPCName"
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4. Now, reboot the system and execute the hostname command to see the changed computer name.

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That is all for the command prompt method.

PowerShell Command to Change Windows 10 Computer Name

Like Command Prompt, you can also use PowerShell commands to change the computer name in Windows 10 quickly. In fact, when compared to the command prompt, the PowerShell command is easy to remember.

1. First, we need to open PowerShell with admin rights. So, search for PowerShell in the start menu, right-click on it, and select “Run as administrator.” You can click on the “Run as administrator” option in the options panel in the start menu.

Powershell start menu search item

2. In PowerShell, execute the below command to find out the current computer name. Like before, we will get the current name with the below command.

HostName
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3. Now, execute the below command while replacing CurrentComputerName with the current name and NewComputerName with the new name. In my case, the new computer name is “MediaPC.”

Rename-Computer -ComputerName "CurrentComputerName" -NewName "NewComputerName"

4. As soon as you execute the command, the PowerShell window will show a warning telling you that the computer name will be changed after restarting the system

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5. So, go ahead and restart the system. After restarting, execute the hostname command in the PowerShell window, and you should see the new computer name.

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That is all. As you can see, changing the computer name in Windows 10 is relatively easy using PowerShell or command prompt command or even the traditional settings or control panel apps.

If you like this article, you might also want to learn how to uninstall Internet Explorer in Windows 10 and how to open always open Command Prompt as an administrator in Windows 10.

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