Admin changes?

[PegasusRider]

The Administrator on my system when I installed noMachine was “XXXXX” with no password.  I changed the name of that account to what I wanted, since the default from purchase was just unacceptable, and added a password.

Still, NoMachine will not recognize the account with the changed name and a password as authorized to make changes.  Entering the defaulted (by NoMachine) old name but without password (since there wasn’t one) also does not allow change access.  Using the password existing under the new name does not work.  I had to rename the account (in windows) and add a password, to gain access.

Oddly, changing the name back again, and changing the password again, has no affect on NoMachine’s authentication process.  It still accepts the original username and password (that worked before) even though windows does not appear to have that as a valid account.

I’m using Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit and NoMachine 4.4.12 (free).

Is this a bug, or am I missing a process to change the Administrator in NoMachine?

Thanks for your attention and help.

[PegasusRider]

After posting this, and doing all those changes, I again tried renaming the Windows Account, NoMachine still does not recognize the name, but it now does recognize the password.

I’m not really sure what happened there, and it makes no sense to me (seems random, but maybe it isn’t /shrug).

Still, would be nice if NoMachine reflected the same Administrator name as Windows.

[Britgirl]

Hi, thanks for taking the time to report your findings. We have opened two new Trouble Reports:

https://www.nomachine.com/TR03M05052 and
https://www.nomachine.com/TR03M05051

Please sign up to receive notification of fixes when they are released.

[PegasusRider]

Last night THIS happened:

I logged into the machine I’m having the account name/password issue with from another computer via WINDOWS NETWORKING using Windows Explorer, standard stuff…

Guess what!? Wrong Account Name (ie old one) required, just like I’m seeing with NoMachine.  I have never run into this before, and in over 15 years of networking my computers together you’d think I would have at least once, or heard of it…

Perhaps this issue is NOT the fault of NoMachine.  Windows seems to be at fault, and I’ll investigate with MS and post back if I find anything.  If you find something first, however, I’d love to hear about it.

[PegasusRider]

Changing the Name of the account only changes what it displays to the user — what it reports to everything else remains as it was.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-security/changed-my-account-name-but-windows-still-requires/2babd355-3b5a-e011-8dfc-68b599b31bf5

In another place (not forums) Microsoft actually uses the term “friendly name” in reference to the changed name of the account.

I don’t particularly like this behavior on MY computer(s), but I can see how that would be handy for corporate machines.

I think it might be nifty to have the option in NoMachine for alternative authentication, but… it could be a hassle beyond value for you all.  I just really dislike the name that was used on initial setup, and was hoping to be able to forget it.  LOL

Personal lesson learned:  Always get the OS disk when you buy, never install anything before wiping the HDD and installing a CLEAN OS, carefully pick the Primary Administrator name and password (then save that info for use later), and immediately create a working admin user account separate from that primary.  A shame that clutters the login screen.  There’s always something!

Thank you for your attentiveness and concern… and your tolerance!

[Cato]

Hello PegasusRider,

Changing account name in Control Panel has only cosmetic effect, exactly as you noticed. Windows internally identifies users with Security
Identifiers, and SID of your user is still mapped to old username. It seems that there’s way of remapping it to the new one. Please, be aware that this solution wasn’t thoroughly tested, and might cause unexpected behaviour in the future.

1. Click on Start \ Run, type in ‘netplwiz’ and press ‘Enter’.
2. In the list of users, select username you want to modify (your old username should be there).
3. Select properties.
4. Modify ‘Username’ field and click on ‘Apply’ button.

You will have to log out and log in, for changes to take effect.
NoMachine authentication should work fine, with new name after changes.

[PegasusRider]

“might cause unexpected behavior in the future”

There’s the rub.  I appreciate the information, and will try it on a virtual machine to see how it performs over time.

[Author]

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