Joomla – How to rename the ‘admin’ account

Since Joomla 2.5 there has been an option to rename the default ‘admin’ account, however in some instances people have continued to use the same ‘admin’ user name – providing brute force hackers half the information they need to hack the website.

To change the ‘admin’ user name, or any Joomla user name:

  1. Log into your Joomla admin console
  2. Hover over the ‘Users’ menu and click on ‘User Manager’
  3. Here you will see a list of all your user accounts
  4. Click on ‘administrator’
  5. Change the value for ‘Login Name’ to something you will remember – but not ‘admin’ or ‘administrator’ – or anything else someone can easily guess, such as ‘god’
  6. Joomla-ChangeUsername1
  7. Click ‘Save and close’ to save the changes.