Renaming Windows Logins in SQL Server

When a DBA creates Windows Logins in SQL Server, the format of these logins is:

[Domain or Server Name]\[Windows Username]

[Domain] can also be the local Server name if the user is a local Windows User.

In the case where the Server name changes and the Windows Login names remain the same in SQL Server then the login will not be usable. To this end, these login names have to be renamed.

The syntax for renaming Windows Logins in SQL Server is:

ALTER LOGIN "[Domain or Server Name]\[Windows Username]"
WITH NAME="[New Domain or New Server Name]\[Windows Username]"

*Note: You have to use the double quotes.

If you want to rename a SQL Server login (SQL Server Authentication) you can use one of the following syntaxes:

Syntax 1
----------
ALTER LOGIN "[SQL Server Login Name]"
WITH NAME="[New SQL Server Login Name]"

Syntax 2
---------
ALTER LOGIN [SQL Server Login Name]
WITH NAME=[New SQL Server Login Name]

As you may noticed from the above two syntaxes, you can either select to use or not double quotes.

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