How to Change the Post Office Name After Setting Up

Last reviewed: May 5, 1997
Article ID: Q111070
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows NT operating system version 3.1
  • Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server version 3.1
  • Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.5 and 3.51
  • Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5 and 3.51

When the Mail post office is initially created under Windows NT, the network and post office names are read from the WORKGROUP= and COMPUTERNAME= lines in the [Network] section of the Windows for Workgroups SYSTEM.INI file. If no SYSTEM.INI is present, the network name defaults to WINDOWS and the post office name defaults to the mailbox name of the postoffice administrator.

Since these default settings are set when the post office is created, changing the postoffice administrator mailbox after installation will not change the post office name. The only way to get a different post office name is to create a SYSTEM.INI file with at least a [Network] section and the following lines:

   [Network]
   computername=<desired post office name>
   workgroup=<desired network name>

After creating this file, recreate the post office. For information on how to delete and recreate the post office, query on the following words in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   postoffice, remove or recreate

To check what the Network and post office names are, choose the About Mail option from the Help menu or choose Details in the Postoffice Manager dialog box.

This article is not applicable to Windows NT 4.x.


Additional query words: wfw wfwg prodnt post office manager po
administration po manager
Keywords : kbinterop nt32ap NTSrvWkst
Version : 3.1 3.5 3.51
Platform : WINDOWS


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Last reviewed: May 5, 1997
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