My Computer Icon 'Name'

[Nick]

Ok, I am being lazy here, but have a lot on...

I have done a medium search through the archives to try to find how to 'reset' the 'My Computer' name under the icon to the default, to no avail.

I looked at the crack to allow it to be changed, but need the fix of how to get it reset to default.

Here's why...
Was asked to sort a friends computer (Win95), as it locks up on boot... Results?

1 No autoexec.bat
2 Two A:\ floppy drives in devices
3 Three Mice in devices (2 serial, 1 PS/2) [or should that be 'mouses'?]
4 Got original Win95 CD, but no OEM key =8^0
5 'My Computer' is called 'w' ?

It's not a major request this one, as a reinstall is on the cards with this poor machine, but I would like to know how to reset the key, for future reference.

Many Thanks,

Nick
P.S. The problem is VWIN32 vxd drivers.... ==8^[

[jstolz]

1 No autoexec.bat
That's not a bad thing in and of itself...

2 Two A:\ floppy drives in devices
a) I'd suggest makiing a copy of system.dat and user.dat (call them system.xxx and user.xxx)
b) Delete one of those floppys.
c) Reboot and see if your floppy is recognized.
c1) If it isn't, reboot to DOS and copy back those xxx files and go to b)
c2) If it seems ok, delete those xxx files

3 Three Mice in devices (2 serial, 1 PS/2) [or should that be 'mouses'?]
Do a similar hunt/destroy as for the floppy

4 Got original Win95 CD, but no OEM key =8^0
Open regedit and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion
Look at the string value called "ProductKey" --hopefully it's not encrypted

5 'My Computer' is called 'w' ?
Nice descriptive name "w"... to change (since you can't seem to rename the icon itself), open regedit and go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
Rename the (default) from "w" to "My Computer"

Regards...

[Nick]

Ah... the other problems I can sort, I just mentioned them to give you an idea of the state of this machine.

OK, why I asked what the 'My Computer' key was is because there isn't one I could find? I have looked on my NT machine at work, and my main computer at home... there doesn't seem to be a 'default' key holding the string 'My Computer'... I guessed I may be able to add one to do this, but there must be a key someone to reset it back to a 'default'... I think ?

Thanks,

Nick

[jstolz]

Well, I'm not clear on what you're saying, but:

1. If you're asking "where the heck is the 'My Computer' registry key, the answer is at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

2. If you're asking if "there must be a key someone to reset it back to a 'default'...", I don't think so... and it doesn't make sense to me that you'd use a reg key to change another reg key, but maybe I'm misunderstanding.

I know that in some cases there is a rename option on the My Computer icon's context menu, but as far as I know the "(default)" value is either empty or set to "My Computer".

Regards...

[Nick]

Hey, Jstolz, my main man,

Aren't remote questions/explanations difficult?

I meant that on the machine's I checked that had a normal 'My Computer' name, this key was an empty string - I was wondering where Win** grabbed the string 'My Computer' from if this was empty.

Anyway, I was back on the original 'sick machine' tonight, and yep... that key's default contained "w". I reset to a null string, rebooted and MY COMPUTER was back.

Thanks, I see now it grabs the name from one of the DLL's in the shell somewhere else in this key structure.

BTW, it was a full Fdisk jobby (on my to-do list for a how-to !) on this sick machine, and all is up and hunky dorky again :-)

Cheers,

Nick :-)