Rename a user account

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

To rename a user account

Open Active Directory Users and Computers.
In the console tree, click Users.
Where?
- Active Directory Users and Computers/domain node/Users
Or, click the folder that contains the user account.
In the details pane, right-click the user account that you want to rename, and then click Rename.
Type the new full name for the user account, and then press ENTER. The Rename User dialog box appears.
The name that you type appears as the full name. You may edit the name, if necessary. When you are satisfied with the new full name, press the Tab key to go to the next box, or click the appropriate box.
In First name, type the user’s first name.
In Last name, type the user’s last name.
In Display name, type the name for the user to be displayed in Active Directory.
In User logon name, type the user's logon name, click the user principal name (UPN) suffix in the drop-down list, and then click Next.
In User logon name (pre-Windows 2000), type a name for the user that is unique for the Active Directory forest.
Click OK.

Notes

To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Account Operators group, Domain Admins group, or the Enterprise Admins group in Active Directory, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure. For more information, see Default local groups, Default groups, and Using Run as.
To open Active Directory Users and Computers, click Start, click Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Active Directory Users and Computers.

Your server might function differently based on the version and edition of the operating system that is installed, your account permissions, and your menu settings. For more information, see Viewing Help on the Web.

Dsmod userUserDN**[-upnUPN][-fnFirstName][-miInitial][-lnLastName][-dnDisplayName][-emailEmailAddress]**

Parameter	Description
UserDN	Specifies the distinguished names of the users that you want to modify. A user distinguished name (UserDN) is required. If values are omitted, they are optained through standard input (stdin) to support piping of output from another command to input of this command. An example of a user distinguished name is CN=CGreen,OU=IT,DC=Contoso,DC=Com.
-upnUPN	Specifies the new user principal names for the user objects that you want to modify, for example, cgreen@contoso.com.
-fnFirstName	Specifies the first names of the user names that you want to modify.
-miInitial	Specifies the middle initials of the user objects that you want to modify.
-lnLastName	Specifies the last names of the user objects that you want to modify.
-dnDisplayName	Specifies the display names for the user objects that you want to modify. The display name of a user object is the name that you want to see when the user communicates using the account. The display name is also the name that other users search for when they look up this user object in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), Exchange, or any directory search tool.
-emailEmailAddress	Specifies the e-mail addresses of the user object that you want to modify, which is often the same as the UPN.

Notes

To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Account Operators group, Domain Admins group, or the Enterprise Admins group in Active Directory, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure. For more information, see Default local groups, Default groups, and Using Run as.
To open Active Directory Users and Computers, click Start, click Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Active Directory Users and Computers.
If a value that you supply contains spaces, use quotation marks around the text, for example, "CN=Mike Danseglio,CN=Users,DC=Microsoft,DC=Com".
If you supply multiple values for a parameter, use spaces to separate the values, for example, a list of distinguished names.
To view the complete syntax for this command and for information about entering more user account information, at a command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

dsmod /?