To physically rename it, you’d need to change the directory name using your host’s file manager or (s)FTP.
BUT… Be aware that just changing the folder name won’t do much as wp-admin is pretty much hard-coded into the WordPress sytem, so every admin link will point back to the original folder, and you’ll never see any admin pages at all.
There are some plugins that will do this for you, so I’d suggest using one of these if you really do need to do that.
I’d actually ask why you need to rename it in the first place? Most people say “security!!!” but that doesn’t help security at all. Whatever you rename the folder to will be found eventually by bots that trawl for these sort of things, and as soon as it’s found any automated aattacks will just start on the new URL anyway.
Moderator
Jan Dembowski
(@jdembowski)
Forum Moderator and Brute Squad
Renaming wp-admin would break so many things. It won’t make your site more secure but it will make it unsupportable.
If your are looking to harden your site then consider the advice in this link.
http://codex.wordpress.org/Hardening_WordPress
Or try one of the security plugins as catacaustic suggested.
Thanks for all answering ,
I already installed plug-in ‘Swift Security’ , and it hide wp for me frontend .
I renamed the wp-content by this code (form internet):
define (‘WP_CONTENT_FOLDERNAME’, ‘assets’);
define (‘WP_CONTENT_DIR’, ABSPATH . WP_CONTENT_FOLDERNAME);
define (‘WP_CONTENT_URL’, ‘http://yourdomain.com/’.WP_CONTENT_FOLDERNAME);
which is works fine ,but for some user who might need to upload media . They will see the link of “Edit Image” http://my-site/wp-admin/post.php?post=1098&action=edit
it shows wp-admin , at backend
So I wondering , is there another code to rename wp-admin physically ,
Thanks
Jackie
tl;dr there is no way and your concerns are ill founded.
Catacaustic and Jan suggested trying to find a different security plugin that meets your requirements, but doing what you want is virtually impossible, short of rewriting the bulk of the core admin code. As catacaustic also pointed out, “wp-admin” is hardcoded into too many locations for renaming to be feasible.
The fact that wp-admin is visible on your front end is meaningless. Every hacker in the world is aware of wp-admin, visible or not. Your site has many other WP “signatures” that announce to the world that wp-admin exists. There is no denying it, nor is there any reason to. What you’re trying to accomplish is security by obscurity, which any security expert will tell you is not real security, even if in some cases there is a small, tangible benefit.
Jan linked to an article on many ways to harden your installation. There are several ways to limit access to wp-admin that are much more effective then trying to hide it. You would need to allow access to anyone needing to edit images. If that is everyone, then you don’t really have any alternatives. Allowing anyone to alter files on your server is more of a risk than the existence of wp-admin. I’m not saying there is a security hole here, only that alteration of files is generally a riskier operation than simply serving content.
You are already using a security plugin. The biggest remaining risk to your site is using dodgy, unmaintained plugins or themes. If you avoid those and use good strong passwords there’s nothing to worry about.
If you’re looking for a way to physically move the wp-admin folder to another location, that is indeed problematic. That’s why there is not an easy solution available. Not that it isn’t just easy, it is even the opposite. The directory name “wp-admin” is hardcoded deeply into wordpress. This is by design, so wordpress actively prevents to allow a change here.
I used iThemes security for change it.
Worked fine for few days, but few days after – I just can´t reach admin panel thru customized wp-admin URL (404 errors).
It´s really better to don´t change that at all I think.
