Windows Forum

Ask something
Discussion Locked

Forced Machine Name on LAN

0 helpful
3 replies

by richard.lecomte

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

Is there a registry hack that will allow me to force a machine name for a given
host on the network. I want to deny the user of a Win98 PC, the abilty to change
the host/PC name. I desire to do this to maintain domain naming conventions.

3 replies

by dheupel

What you might want to do is use system policies to prevent the user from entering the network properties via Control Panel.

However, you might be able to use a registry hack to force a computer name. I'm now using Windows 2K, but the registry key should be similar for Win98. In Win2K, it is:

HKLM/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/ComputerName

In this key, you will see two sub keys, ComputerName, and ActiveComputerName. These are string values, and they should be the same. In my Win2K registry, I also see HKLM/SYSTEM/ControlSet001, and HKLM/SYSTEM/ControlSet002 - however, I believe the Win9x OS only has a CurrentControlSet, so I would start looking there.

As registry editing can be dangerous - BACK UP THE REGISTRY FIRST! Also, I would recommend enabling a policy to keep the user from changing the computer name, and use a registry hack as a last resort.

Good luck!

This discussion is closed to new replies.