How do you change the registered to on a computer?

I just bought a Laptop on Ebay and it still has the previous owners name under the registered to area...how do I change it to my name??How do you change the registered to on a computer?
I'm sure theres a way to change it, but you probably want to format your hard drive and install a new copy of windows. Did he send the windows install CD that should have come with the computer (when it was new)? If not you'll have to buy a new copy of windows. Get XP if thats whats currently on the machine.



You don't know what malicious software might be on that machine.How do you change the registered to on a computer?
Click on run and type 'regedit'



Now go through these folders HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE %26gt; SOFTWARE %26gt; Microsoft %26gt; Windows NT %26gt; Currentversion



Click on the Registered Owner file and change the name.



You can also change the company and other things from here.