You can easily rename Windows devices remotely using the Intune admin center. When you do this, the device name will change in Intune, Microsoft Entra ID, and the device itself.
There are many use cases for this option:
- For example, you use an Autopilot deployment profile to configure device hostnames based on a specific template. After you have deployed devices via Autopilot, you can rename them if you want.
- If your organization has special devices for specific purposes, like Processing Batch Jobs or Running Specific Applications, and you want to reflect this in their names, you can rename them via Intune.
As of now you can rename following type of devices using Intune admin center:
Source: Microsoft
- Android Enterprise:
- Corporate-owned work profiles
- Dedicated devices
- Fully managed
- iOS/iPadOS supervised devices with iOS 9.3 and later
- macOS 10 – Corporate-owned devices
- Windows – Corporate-owned devices
- Corporate-owned co-managed devices that are Azure AD joined.
There are several ways to rename a Windows device. However, In this blog post, we will see the steps for options 1 and 2, using the Intune admin center and manually from the device.
- Using Microsoft Intune admin center
- Rename a device hostname on the device itself
- Using Microsoft Entra admin center
- Using Powershell
Table of Contents
Steps to Rename a Windows Device using Intune Admin Center
Please follow the below steps to rename a Windows device using the Intune admin center.
- Login on Intune admin center
- Click on Devices > All Devices
- Search for the device you want to rename and click on it to manage.
- After you click on the device, you will find information about the device, such as the device serial number, primary user, operating system, etc.
- You can click on the three dots on the right [please refer to the screenshot below] and then select Rename device to Rename this device. Make sure that the number of characters should be 15 or less. There are other guidelines when naming a Windows device, which are listed below:
Device Rename guidelines:
- 15 characters or less
- Letters (a-z, A-Z), numbers (0-9), and hyphens. Names must not contain only numbers.
- No spaces or special characters.
Tokens can be used to add device-specific values to the name:
- Add {{serialnumber}} to add the device’s serial number to the name
- Add {{rand:x}} to add a random string of numbers, where x equals the number of digits to add.
- In my case, please enter a new name for the device. I am simply adding additional characters to the name of my desktop [please refer to screenshot] and making sure the total number of characters is not more than 15 and device naming guidelines are followed.
- I will select Restart after rename, as the device will not be renamed without restarting. You can select No to skip device restart after the rename operation, and at a later point, you can manually restart the device yourself.
- As you can see from below screenshot, A notification appears on the portal which confirms that a restart has been initiated.
Sync Intune Policies
The device check-in process might not begin immediately. If you’re testing this policy on a test device, you can manually kickstart the Intune sync from the device itself or remotely through the Intune admin center.
Alternatively, you can use PowerShell to force the Intune sync on Windows devices. Restarting the device is another way to trigger the Intune device check-in process.
End-user Experience
- When the device rename policy kicks in, the user will see the pop-up message below: “You’re about to be signed out; Your device administrator has scheduled a reboot.” This pop-up is because of the configuration when renaming the device: “Restart after rename” to Yes.
- The user will get around 2 minutes before the device will reboot.
- Device Restarted.
- After the device is rebooted, you can log in and use the below steps to check if the device hostname has been updated.
- Press the Win + R key together to open the Run dialog box.
- Type sysdm.cpl to open System Properties.
- Check the Full computer name to make sure it’s renamed.
Steps to rename a Windows device manually
Use the steps below to rename a Windows device manually.
- Press the Win + R key together to open the Run dialog box.
- Type sysdm.cpl to open System Properties.
- Click the Change button under the Computer name tab to rename a device. Follow the device renaming guidelines.
- Restart the device to complete this change.
When you manually rename and restart a device, the new device name should be automatically updated on Microsoft Entra ID and Intune admin center.
Conclusion
In this blog post, we have seen how to rename a device using the Intune admin center. Renaming a device via Intune remotely is a useful feature that will help IT administrators. There is no requirement for Powershell scripts or any complex procedure to rename a device. The Rename option provided for Device management does the job for you.
