How to change the company name and user name in Office XP programs

This step-by-step article describes how to change the name of the company in Office XP after Setup by modifying the Windows registry. This article also explains how to change the user name information.

NOTE: In earlier versions of Office, if you want to change the company name that is displayed on the Office splash screens and in the About program name dialog box on the Help menu (where program name is the program that you are using), you must remove Office, run Setup again, and then type a new company name.

How to Change the Company Name

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
To change the company name that is displayed in the Office programs, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit and then click OK.
3. Try to locate and select the following key. If the key is not present, go to step 6. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\< GUID> where <GUID> is the Product Code for the version of Office that is installed; for example, {90280409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0050048383C9}. More than one GUID may be listed under the Uninstall subkey. If you see more than one, select each GUID until you find the one that has the correct product name listed for the DisplayName value; for example, "Microsoft Office XP Professional."
4. Double-click RegCompany in the Name column.
5. Change the text in the Value data box, click OK, and then go to step 9.
6. NOTE: Follow this step (6) only if you were unable to locate the key in step 3.
   
   Locate and select the following key. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Installer/Userdata/S-1-5-18/Products/< GUID>/InstallProperties where <GUID> is the product code for the version of Office that is installed; for example, {9040820900063D11C8EF00054038389C }. More than one GUID may be listed under the Uninstall subkey. If you see more than one, select each GUID, and then look in the InstallProperties folder until you find the one that has the correct product name listed for the DisplayName value; for example, "Microsoft Office XP Professional."
7. In the Name column, double-click RegCompany.
8. Change the text in the Value data box, and then click OK.
9. Locate and select the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Common\UserInfo
10. On the Edit menu, click Rename.
11. Type OldUserInfo, and then press ENTER.
12. On the Registry menu, click Exit.
    
    When you start an Office program, the company name that is displayed reflects the change that you made in step 5.

NOTE: After you follow these steps, if the company name is changed in all programs except one, locate the following key, delete it, and then restart Office HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\<OfficeApp>\UserInfo where OfficeApp is the Microsoft Office program that still displays the incorrect company name.

How to Change the User Name Information

You can change the user name information in Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, and Microsoft Word 2002. You only have to change the user name in one of these programs to change it for the other Office XP programs. To change the user name information, follow these steps.

In Microsoft Excel 2002

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. Click the General tab.
3. Type the user name information in the User Name box.
4. Click OK.

In Microsoft PowerPoint 2002

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. Click the General tab.
3. Type the user name information in the Name box.
4. Click OK.

In Microsoft Word 2002

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. Click the User Information tab.
3. Type the user name information in the Name box.
4. Click OK.