Your computer’s digital name is an important but often overlooked setting. Windows uses your PC’s assigned name to present itself on your network and communicate with other devices. By default, your PC probably has a randomly-assigned name from the manufacturer – you can change this to make it easier to identify.
There are multiple ways of changing the name but one of the quickest is to use the Settings app. Launch it from the Start menu, click the “System” category and then the “About” page at the bottom of the menu at the left. Scroll down the page to “Device specifications.”
Here, you’ll see your PC’s current name under “Device name.” Click “Rename this PC” to change the name. Type a new name into the popup prompt, using letters, hyphens and numbers. You should also remember that the name may appear truncated on some devices if you use more than 15 characters – try to stay below this length for trouble-free networking.
The name change won’t take full effect until after you restart your PC, since some software will continue to use the old name. Next time you reboot, you’ll find Windows has assumed its new identity, and the old name will no longer have any effect.
