The recent Windows Live Wave 3 upgrade integrated various aspects of Windows Live that permit a wide range of new uses for your Windows Live Profile.  Due to this integration many people have noticed that their name is more visible and appearing where they may have previously posted a nickname or user name.

Some participants prefer to have their name visible on their profile while others prefer to be known by their nickname or user name that they are known by in other forums.

The changes to Windows Live also result in changes to where information is edited which is the reason for this tutorial.  In this blog I will describe what to do to change your name.  Changing how your name appears requires that you edit your Windows Live "Profile" Module.

To access your Profile Module you should first login to your Windows Live Spaces.

If you cannot get to these features in your Profile Module after logging into Spaces, you can follow these steps to get directly to that module.  The instructions below and the images show what you will need to adjust if you want to make changes to your Profile Module

 

Name

  • http://account.live.com/editname.aspx

  • Make any changes you would like.

  • Click Save.

    If you use the link given above to go straight to your Profile Module you will see this page with an instructional note in the Yellow box.

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    If you make adjustments to your Profile Module from Spaces here is what you will see and where you should click to edit your Profile Module.  By editing your Profile Module from your Spaces page there are additional items that are revealed to personalize how your information appears.  In each image instructions are added with arrows that designate what  each instruction is referencing.
     
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    After clicking on "Edit profile details" as shown above, you are taken to this page which contains settings for all of the Windows Live options for your account.
     

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    Make adjustments to your Profile where the arrows indicate your preferences can be customized.
     
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    My blog and Spaces is limited to my participation in Live Search QnA, therefore I want to customize my profile to have my user name or nickname for my QnA account visible.  In that regard, I have made several of the following customizations to my account to reflect my participation on Live Search QnA as a site facilitator. 

    Live Search QnA is integrated to Windows Live to permit the friends you meet on QnA to learn more about you and share more personal information.  The name "Mindy-QnA-MVP" that I have posted in this image is now integrated with my Live Search QnA account so I only have to change the settings once and the changes are made across Windows Live.
     
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    Here is what the edits look like once I have clicked "Save" on my Profile.
     
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    This change also adjusts your settings on your Windows Live Mail or hotmail.  Your chosen name, nickname or user name will now appear on your outgoing email so you can communicate with other participants in the Live Search QnA forum or participants in other forums who know you by your nickname or user name only.   

    Any variation can be used in the fields in your Profile Module to customize the information to do what you need it to do.  Some QnA participants post their first name and instead of a last name use a nickname or simply post a period in the "Last name" field if they do not want any information there.

    This same technique can be used to adjust your Profile Module for the Clubhouse if you prefer to use a nickname or user name. 

    To participate in Live Search QnA you can find it at this link... http://www.qna.live.com .     
     

       

    mindymvp

    Mindy D'Amico
    Microsoft MVP - Windows Live