I have an XP Pro machine where originally it was thought that "there will
never be another user in the world, ever," and so it was left with just the
Administrator account. No "normal" users were ever added. And so up to now,
of course, all the programs were installed, settings, etc. on that one,
single Administrator account.

Now it has been decided to finally be able to add users. So the
Administrator account should "migrate" to the first new user, and other new
users will be added in time. But, having no experience with this, I'm afraid
of getting it wrong, and ending up with the Administrator account vanishing
and the new user having nothing .. and therefore having to reinstall all the
programs for that user, etc.

Is it indeed possible to "migrate" the Administrator account (that is, its
settings, etc.) to some user account? Thanks for any info.

John

When you create a new user you will lose the default admin acct....it will
still be accesible from safe mode.
What you need to do is create 3 user accounts....all with admin priviledges
and then restart system using one of those accounts.
Then use the "Copy Profile" function that is provided here: Control Panel /
System / Advanced / User Profiles.
From there copy the original Admin profile to the other 2 users that you are
not logged in as
Make sure to reboot the afterwards and double check each user to verify the
copy
You can then delete that 3rd user
peter

"JMF" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I have an XP Pro machine where originally it was thought that "there will
>never be another user in the world, ever," and so it was left with just the
>Administrator account. No "normal" users were ever added. And so up to now,
>of course, all the programs were installed, settings, etc. on that one,
>single Administrator account.
>
> Now it has been decided to finally be able to add users. So the
> Administrator account should "migrate" to the first new user, and other
> new users will be added in time. But, having no experience with this, I'm
> afraid of getting it wrong, and ending up with the Administrator account
> vanishing and the new user having nothing .. and therefore having to
> reinstall all the programs for that user, etc.
>
> Is it indeed possible to "migrate" the Administrator account (that is, its
> settings, etc.) to some user account? Thanks for any info.
>
> John
>
>

"peter" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...

Peter,

> When you create a new user you will lose the default admin acct....it will
> still be accesible from safe mode.

That's the part I had heard about and was worried about.

> What you need to do is create 3 user accounts....all with admin
> priviledges and then restart system using one of those accounts.
> Then use the "Copy Profile" function that is provided here: Control Panel
> / System / Advanced / User Profiles.
> From there copy the original Admin profile to the other 2 users that you
> are not logged in as
> Make sure to reboot the afterwards and double check each user to verify
> the copy
> You can then delete that 3rd user
> peter

Great! Thanks very much, Peter!

John

> "JMF" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>I have an XP Pro machine where originally it was thought that "there will
>>never be another user in the world, ever," and so it was left with just
>>the Administrator account. No "normal" users were ever added. And so up to
>>now, of course, all the programs were installed, settings, etc. on that
>>one, single Administrator account.
>>
>> Now it has been decided to finally be able to add users. So the
>> Administrator account should "migrate" to the first new user, and other
>> new users will be added in time. But, having no experience with this, I'm
>> afraid of getting it wrong, and ending up with the Administrator account
>> vanishing and the new user having nothing .. and therefore having to
>> reinstall all the programs for that user, etc.
>>
>> Is it indeed possible to "migrate" the Administrator account (that is,
>> its settings, etc.) to some user account? Thanks for any info.
>>
>> John
>>
>>
>

"peter" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> When you create a new user you will lose the default admin acct....it will
> still be accesible from safe mode.

the OP has Pro - you don't need to boot into safe mode to log on as The
administrator in Pro

> What you need to do is create 3 user accounts....all with admin
> priviledges

Why three? One is sufficient - all the others should be LIMITED.......

"JMF" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "peter" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> Peter,
>
>> When you create a new user you will lose the default admin acct....it
>> will still be accesible from safe mode.
>
> That's the part I had heard about and was worried about.

And you don't need to boot into safe mode in Pro to access the Administrator
account....


>
>> What you need to do is create 3 user accounts....all with admin
>> priviledges and then restart system using one of those accounts.
>> Then use the "Copy Profile" function that is provided here: Control
>> Panel / System / Advanced / User Profiles.
>> From there copy the original Admin profile to the other 2 users that you
>> are not logged in as
>> Make sure to reboot the afterwards and double check each user to verify
>> the copy
>> You can then delete that 3rd user
>> peter
>
> Great! Thanks very much, Peter!
>

And you don't need THREE users with admin rights - it's a security risk.
create your one User with Admin rights, and go here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151/ to see how to transfer the data. (I
know it says "corrupted profile" but the procedure is the same)..

HTH

"Gordon" wrote:

> "peter" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > When you create a new user you will lose the default admin acct....it will
> > still be accesible from safe mode.
>
> the OP has Pro - you don't need to boot into safe mode to log on as The
> administrator in Pro
>
> > What you need to do is create 3 user accounts....all with admin
> > priviledges
>
> Why three? One is sufficient - all the others should be LIMITED.......
>

I see where he's going with three. 1st account he'll keep as administrator,
he'll copy the profile into this account. 2nd account he'll use as a working
account so that he'll not have to be in the first account when it's copied
over. 3rd account is a fail safe. Incase something goes wrong, he'll have an
administartor account that works so that he can recover. After the 1st
account is successfully created and profile is correct, he'll delete the
third account and then the second account becomes the account of the new user
and he'll have his first account to use.

It's a lot of extra work, but probably safer in the long run.

"Black Wolf Standing" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
message news:B201B804-2556-4A8E-B18E-

> 3rd account is a fail safe. Incase something goes wrong, he'll have an
> administartor account that works so that he can recover.

that's what the built-in Administrator is for - no need to create a
superfluous account to do that....

Gordon, thanks - I'll follow this link to the info you suggested.

John

"Gordon" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> "JMF" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>> "peter" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>> Peter,
>>
>>> When you create a new user you will lose the default admin acct....it
>>> will still be accesible from safe mode.
>>
>> That's the part I had heard about and was worried about.
>
> And you don't need to boot into safe mode in Pro to access the
> Administrator account....
>
>
>>
>>> What you need to do is create 3 user accounts....all with admin
>>> priviledges and then restart system using one of those accounts.
>>> Then use the "Copy Profile" function that is provided here: Control
>>> Panel / System / Advanced / User Profiles.
>>> From there copy the original Admin profile to the other 2 users that you
>>> are not logged in as
>>> Make sure to reboot the afterwards and double check each user to verify
>>> the copy
>>> You can then delete that 3rd user
>>> peter
>>
>> Great! Thanks very much, Peter!
>>
>
> And you don't need THREE users with admin rights - it's a security risk.
> create your one User with Admin rights, and go here:
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151/ to see how to transfer the data.
> (I know it says "corrupted profile" but the procedure is the same)..
>
> HTH
>

"Gordon" wrote:

> "Black Wolf Standing" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
> message news:B201B804-2556-4A8E-B18E-
>
> > 3rd account is a fail safe. Incase something goes wrong, he'll have an
> > administartor account that works so that he can recover.
>
> that's what the built-in Administrator is for - no need to create a
> superfluous account to do that....
>

You're absolutely right.

Myself, I'm use the lazy man's system administrator code. The least amount
of work to get the job done right. I hate creating accounts that I'm just
going to nuke anyways. The more complex you make your work, the greater the
chance of something going wrong. K.I.S.S.