With the release of WordPress 3.0, some of you may have been excited to hear that you’ll be able to specify your own admin username. I didn’t install a fresh copy of WordPress 3.0, but instead chose to upgrade my current version using the built-in upgrade method. I was also under the assumption that I would be able to go into the settings panel and change my username from “admin” to something more familiar to me. “Admin” is just so.. blah. *insert tongue sticking out motion with wrists unrolling hands toward you* I wanted something interesting like McLovin.. or SexPanther1972.. anything other than “admin”, really.

Alas, I was let down. Boo to you, WordPress. I thought that this would make 3.0 for sure (and it’s such an easy query to run!). No, seriously, look:

UPDATE `wp_users` SET `user_login` = 'new_username' WHERE `user_login` = 'admin';

So, how do I do it?!

• Log into phpMyAdmin (or something similar) to manage your MySQL database.
• Locate and browse the “wp_users” table (this will show the records).
• Locate the entry titled “admin” and click edit.
• In the “user_login” column, change “admin” to your preferred username.

That’s it! After changing my default admin username, I immediately felt better and you probably will too.

Tags: Awesome, MySQL, WordPress