Changing the device Name on Windows Mobile 6 devices
I had a customer yesterday ask how they could change the device names of Windows Mobile 6 devices to align with their PC/Laptop naming conventions.
On a Windows Mobile 6 Professional device you can change the device name in Start..Settings..About and then select the Device ID Tab.
On a WM6 Standard (Smartphone device) using Vista you can name a device on the 1st pairing to the Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC). You cannot rename it afterwards from WMDC, but you can do this in Explorer if it is paired to WMDC. Just browse to My Computer, right click on the device (or select and press Enter) select properties and you can rename; if you disconnect and then reconnect the new name is reflected in WMDC as well. There does not seem to be a way to do this on the phone itself, but if I remember correctly you could never do this on SmartPhone, only on PocketPC…
Comments
Anonymous
September 24, 2007
It's possible by editing phone registry directly (e.g. with PHM Registry Editor), exact keys/values are a google away ;)Anonymous
September 25, 2007
You're right, Jason (of course). I could never find a way through the Smartphone UI. The registry value however is.. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEIdentName I've automated this change in the past a few times with management software, e.g. reading a user value from elsewhere in the registry and using this as the device name.Anonymous
September 26, 2007
Odd thing is though, I find that I can name my device using Device 'owner information' and as soon as I sync with WMDC, it changes the device name to something randomly generated of the format WINDOWSMOBILEnn I check WMDC and the device properties from explorer and the name I thought I had set it too is still visible. Anyone any idea why this changes? It's nothing more than cosmetic really but I like to know what device I have connected to my BT carkit in my car...