Hi Francis,
I have a new Gateway desktop with Vista Home Premium. I am the only
user. I have not set up any "User Accounts". I presume that makes me
the Administrator.
Hmmm, not necessarily. You might be either an Administrator, or Standard
User. To check, go to Control Panel, User Accounts, "change account type".
Seect your "Francis" account in the list of users and press Properties. See
if you are administrator or Standard User. But at present you are probably
configured as an administrator.
At c:\users there are listed three names: Default,
Francis (my name), and Public. My question: From time to time, when I
try to perform some actions (like, move or delete a folder), I am told
that I "need Administrator permission" .
This is how Vista normally works. Even if you are logged in as an
administrator, you are prompted to manually confirm actions which require
administrative privileges. This is called UAC or "User Account Control". It
is to prevent viruses silently changing important settings on your machine,
without your knowledge or consent - one of the main ways viruses attack your
system. This way, you have to explicity say "yes I want to instal this
driver" or "yes I want to overwrite that file".
It is possible to tur UAC off, but it isn't recommended. You'll be losing
one of the big security advanatges of Vista.
My question: How do I inform
Vista that I am the Administrator? Or, if I am not the Administrator,
how do I become the Administrator?
As above, you can change accounts back and forth between Standard User and
administror user, in Control Panel, User Accounts, account type. The safest
scenario is to keep your ordinary, day-to-day account as a Standard User
(for you, this would be the Francis account); and create a separate account
to use as administrator. If you are logged in as a Standard user and some
operation needs administrative consent, you will be prompted for the
credentials of your alternative, administative account.
There's some more background info here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/useraccountcontrol.mspx
Hope it helps,
