hand-me-down question

I am the proud owner of a new-to-me Mac Powerbook G4, thanks to a friend who sold me hers when she got the new Macbook. There are a number of things on the computer that I want to keep (and she wants me to keep). How do I remove her as owner and remove her keychains but keep everything else? I installed Tiger, registered the computer in my name, changed the administrator name to mine but her name still shows up as "Jane Doe's computer", short name "JaneDoe" and I still show up as "Newbie", short name "visitor".

I can't just do a clean install and reinstall programs like Microsoft Office because she lives in another country and has the discs there and mail is not reliable where she lives so she can't send them to me. I also want to keep photographs from trips we took together, etc.

Thanks for anhy help you can give me, and forgive the ignorance, I'm new to Macs!

You'll need to make your account an Administrator first. Then log in under your new administrator account and open System Preferences. In the Accounts pane, remove the former owner's account (select it and click the minus (-) button.) Click OK; do not click "Delete Immediately." All of her files will be "archived" in her old Home folder, but her keychains and preferences will no longer be active, and your account(s) will be the only one that can log in.

You can change the computer's name in the Sharing pane of System Preferences.

If you really want to banish all traces of her, you can copy all the photos/movies/music of hers that you wanted to keep to your own Home folder, and then trash her old one.

Thank you!

Thank you so much--it seems to be working! It is taking forever to complete though, I hope that's normal. The little pinwheel icon is just swirling away.

technologist said:

You'll need to make your account an Administrator first. Then log in under your new administrator account and open System Preferences. In the Accounts pane, remove the former owner's account (select it and click the minus (-) button.) Click OK; do not click "Delete Immediately." All of her files will be "archived" in her old Home folder, but her keychains and preferences will no longer be active, and your account(s) will be the only one that can log in.

You can change the computer's name in the Sharing pane of System Preferences.

If you really want to banish all traces of her, you can copy all the photos/movies/music of hers that you wanted to keep to your own Home folder, and then trash her old one.

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