A few weeks ago I started a sister YouTube channel for this site and have gradually been putting together videos. I’ve got several videos planned that will use one of the MS Office programs, usually Excel or Word. But if you look at the top right of the window you’ll see your name. And I didn’t want my actual name on these videos, so I went looking for a way to change it to something generic.
So we’re on the same page, here’s a screenshot of what I’m talking about.
Notice the Joe Smith and JS initials across the top. That’s what I want to change.
First step is to run the registry editor program. You can do this by searching for it in the start menu or by typing regedit in the search box in the taskbar. Word of warning, if you’re not familiar with the registry editor, you can do some serious damage to your computer if you’re not careful. So be careful.
On the left side is a list of folders. You want to navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Identity. If you don’t have the 16.0 folder, you may have a different version of Office installed. If you do, you’ll need to change the 16.0 to the version you have installed.
Once there, it should look similar to this.
If you double click on FriendlyName you will be able to change it to whatever you want. While you’re here you can also change the initials which will show up in the little icon to the right of the name you picked. You can also change FirstName, LastName and EmailAddress; but it doesn’t seem to have any effect on the title bar. Best not to mess with any of the other settings.
I went with a generic name.
Go ahead and close out of registry editor and open up Excel or Word. You should see your new name in the title bar.
