If you have several users accessing the same computer (very common for home
computers), then having a User Account for each of them, is a good way for everyone
to get the most out of the computer resources, and programs (such as email and
browsers).
User Accounts allow each user to make full use of areas like My Documents,
Email Clients, Browsers (Favorites, personal settings), Background pictures,
sounds, and other personal preferences. Preferences and program settings such
as these do not affect the other user's settings and preferences.
If you select Control Panel from the Start menu you'll see an icon labeled
User Accounts. This is where the folder for each user is stored as well as a
couple of special folders - All Users and Default User.
Setting up a User Account takes about 2 minutes time. Once you have the Wizard
running, you give the account a user name. This should be very discriptive,
such as the person's real name. Since the sign on page for Windows is all graphical,
the user will only need to remember, and type in a password (if you set up passwords,
it is optional). For user names we are just going to click on our personal Icon.
There are two types of accounts. One is an Administrative Account, and the
other is a Limited User Account. Typically, you only want one Administrative
Account. The Account you started Windows XP with, is an Administrative Account.
Keep that one, and make all others Limited Users. This is good for security,
and helps battle mal-ware, and even some Trojans. It also insures that any software
installed is something you will know about, because Limited User accounts, can
not install software.
Windows automatically created an Administrator account when the operating system
is first installed. By default, this account won't be password-protected - you
have to assign a password yourself. This user account is not displayed in the
Welcome screen and is only accessible in Safe Mode. If there is an Administrator
account on your PC with no password protection, you should change this at the
earliest opportunity.
To do this, repeatedly press F8 once you have turned the power on, but before
Windows starts, to show the start-up menu. Press the up arrow so that Safe mode
is highlighted and then press Enter. Windows will start in Safe mode and the
welcome screen will now show the default Administrator account.
Limited Users will not be shown. Click on the Administrator user and Windows
will finish loading. Now click on the Start button and then Control Panel and
User Accounts as before, and then click on Administrator.
Click on the Create a password option. Enter a password in the two boxes. Make
sure that the Administrator password is hard to guess. Click on the Create password
button then restart the computer.
We've already set up Eddie's user account, so now we should set up a password
for him. Password protection for user accounts on a home computer are not necessary.
If you want to set them up, that's your choice. Sometimes it is a nice feature
to make sure that users are actually on their user account, rather than someone
else's.
I don't want Eddie in my stuff however and I know he doesn't want me poking
around in his, so we'll set him up a password. Again this is very easy. You
click on the Add Password link, type in the password twice, give a password
hint at the bottom and click the OK button. Password is now set.
Each user can create a Password reset disk in case they forget their password,
using a floppy disk. Again, this is not essential to do this (since the Administrator
Account can reset the passwords if someone forgets theirs) and we hope that
Microsoft provides the option to save such info to a USB key in future. For
now however the only option is the floppy disk.
You can only create a reset disk for a user when you are logged in as that
user. Once you've logged in, click on the Prevent a forgotten password option
on the left of the User Accounts screen accessed from the Control Panel. Insert
a floppy disk and click on Next, enter your current password and click on Next
again. The disk will be created, click on Next to finish the wizard.
To recover a forgotten password, click on your user name on the welcome screen
and then on the green arrow without entering a password. A message balloon will
appear with an option to use your password reset disk and a wizard will appear
to help guide you through this process.
Click on Next, insert the disk and click on next again. Type a new password
into the two boxes and add a hint below. Click on Finish and log in with the
new password. This disk can be used as many times as it is needed without updating
with the new password.
You can also change Icons for each user, and use your own images as well.
This adds a bit of personalization to each account. Users can change their
own icons as they wish. Find an image, click on it and then on Open. You can
use most image formats and any size, although ideally they should be 48 pixels
square.
Once user accounts are set up, each user can decide if they want to share folders
or whether they should be kept private. To make a folder private, right-click
on it and select Sharing and Security. Select the option Make this folder private
and click on OK. When this is done, no one else will be able to read the files.
If the account has no password, Windows will prompt you to create one.
To allow certain files or folders to be shared with other users, simply drag-and-drop
these into the Shared Documents folder that appears in My Computer. Be aware
that this does not make a copy of the file, even though Windows will show files
both in Shared Documents and the original folder.
If a file is deleted in Shared Folders it is deleted from its original location
as well. So be careful when accessing this folder, and careful as to what you
put there.
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