How To Rename Computers Remotely

Overview

VNCScan allows you to rename any computer that is on your LAN as long as it is running Windows 2000 or greater and you know the administrator login for the computer or domain.

How it works

1. Right-click a computer in a managed group and choose "Windows Tools"
   

2. Click on the "Rename Networked Computer" menu sub item
   

3. Enter a new NETBIOS name for the remote computer.  Do not use a FQDN like computer.domain.com as the new name or it will fail.  Simply use the first section or NETBIOS name like "COMPUTER". 
   

4. Enter a username and password with access to perform this action.  If you are on a domain and this remote computer is a member of your domain, be sure to use a domain administrative user account because the computer is renamed in Active Directory during the process.
   

5. Press the "Rename" button.
   

6. If a message box tells you that you need to reboot the remote computer for this to take affect, you can do so by right-clicking the same computer in the Managed Group, choosing "Windows Tools", and then "Reboot Computer(s)".
   
   Information about remotely rebooting computers is found here.

Figure 1 - Right-clicking a computer to select the menu option

Figure 2 - Renaming a networked computer