thank you, Elendil and Panda Man, for your responses.
My original post on this subject was on 16/10/05 (but there was no response
and I cannot even find my post on the newsgroups now. I studied knowlege
bases and forums, studied settings in great detail, experimented in safe mode
and user profiles, deleting 'unknown user' and my owner account, etc and
caused myself a few problems and confusion (I'm stiil more of a novice for
all that I have learnt).
Then other things took priority, till now.
I still want to set up a limited user account for myself (more secure?),
i.e. in addiition to my Owner/Administator account.
Sorry, I forgot to say my pc is a Dell Dimension 4600 and it's XP Home
edition.
Tonight, I opened a Limited User account again to see what happened, and:
1. get Microsoft anti-spyware requests to authorise changing settings for
Internet Security Intranet and Internet Zones ('Restricted Sites') to below
minimum levels.
2. no web sites listed in the Internet Security 'Restricted Sites' section,
i.e. in my owner account the 'Restricted Sites' section blocks a huge number
of dodgy looking sites.
3. 'Newly discovered programme: UPnP device' in the start up tray.
4. Full range of programs when I click on 'All Programs'.
5. clicking on AOL, goes to my AOL account (not able to use it only because
I have unchecked the 'remember my password' box).
6. can change any of the Internet settings.
7. can download and install program (tried Google Earth and it installed ok).
I haven't deleted the Limited user account I opened tonight but put a
password on it for the time being.
For security, I've got:
- good password for my Owner/Administrator account, which I set up booting
in safe mode
- Windows XP Firewall (did have the McAfee f/wall in th AOL package but
planning to d/load Zone Alarm, which seems easier to understand)
- AVG free version anti-virus
- AOL and Microsoft anti-spyware
- Spybot
- Ad-aware anti spyware
and the scans are clear apart from tracking cookies.
Hope this is enough information and not too much.
Appreciate any advice,
thanks
John