Change Computer Description in Registry

Change a Computer’s Description in the Registry Using PowerShell

I want to explain how to use PowerShell’s registry cmdlets to change a computer’s description field. 

I will also show you how to view a list of computer descriptions on the network.

• Computer Description in Control Panel
• Task 1: To Change a Computer Description
• Task 2: To View Computer Descriptions on the Network
• PowerShell MaintainServerList
• Net View

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Problem(s) with Changing the Computer Description

Our main task is to set the ‘Computer description’.  However, we are not going to use the Control Panel, but instead, employ PowerShell to programmatically change the value data for ‘srvcomment’ in the registry.

Our secondary task is to view these freshly added ‘Computer descriptions’ on the network. 

Computer Description in Control Panel –> System

PowerShell Task 1: To Change a Computer Description

Preliminary Task: Install the PSRemoteRegistry Module
The first problem is that PowerShell 3.0 does not have the Set-RegString cmdlet, which was designed by Shay Levy.

Our preliminary task is downloading a special PowerShell module called PSRemoteRegistry. 

Note 1: I found the .msi version worked, whereas the extracting the .zip caused an error.

Following the download, you can now install Shay Levy’s registry cmdlets using these native PowerShell commands:

How to Change a Computer Description in the Registry
The key cmdlet in the PSRemoteRegistry module is Set-RegString; we will use it to script a change in the REG_SZ value for "srvcomment".

Note 2: You can suppress the ‘Confirm’ message by appending -Force

Note 3: No need to restart the computer, just close then open the Control Panel.

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PowerShell Task 2: To View Computer Descriptions on the Network

Problem: Starting with Vista, a computer’s description no longer shows in the Explorer or Network view. I cannot see why Microsoft just don’t add a column called ‘Description’, but they don’t, so this is my work-around.

Solution: Net View Displays Computer Descriptions
While you could run this old DOS command via cmd.exe, why not get into the habit of always going to PowerShell for any configuration task?

To see a list of network computer descriptions, just type:

Net View.

The result is that we should see the computer description that we changed in the registry. See screenshot above right.

PowerShell 3 script to Rename-Computer »

Summary Change Computer Description in Registry

There are two main tasks to this project, using PowerShell to set the Computer description in the registry, and also employing PowerShell to view the result on the network with: Net View.

See More Windows PowerShell Examples of Real-life Tasks

• PowerShell Tutorials  • PowerShell Examples  • IpConfig  • Get-Counter  • PowerShell NetSh

• Monitor Performance – PowerShell  • PowerShell temp   • PowerShell Delete Temporary files

• PowerShell WOL (Wake-on-Lan)  • Services   • Change Computer Description Registry

Please email me if you have a better example script. Also please report any factual mistakes, grammatical errors or broken links, I will be happy to correct the fault.