logging on with user name instead of administrator - TROUBLE

[Steve]

My wife's computer (XP Pro) is used only by her. There is only one user to
log on to at startup. It used to say "administrator"; I decided to change
it to my wife's name. This was not a good idea.

NOW, there is still only one user icon to log on to, with my wife's name.
HOWEVER, it seems that in terms of documents, desktop items, outlook express
data, etc, the PC is treating it as a new account. Everything is gone. I
poked around and found that the files all still exist, but in the
"administrator"s folders, not the folders with my wife's name. I cannot
just switch users because there is only one user.

How do I get the PC to make use of my wife's setting and show her files?

Thanks much,
Steve

 

[Joe]

My wife's computer (XP Pro) is used only by her. There is only one user to
log on to at startup. It used to say "administrator"; I decided to change
it to my wife's name. This was not a good idea.

NOW, there is still only one user icon to log on to, with my wife's name.
HOWEVER, it seems that in terms of documents, desktop items, outlook express
data, etc, the PC is treating it as a new account. Everything is gone. I
poked around and found that the files all still exist, but in the
"administrator"s folders, not the folders with my wife's name. I cannot
just switch users because there is only one user.

How do I get the PC to make use of my wife's setting and show her files?

Thanks much,
Steve

I don't have an XP machine in front of me right now but I believe if you go
into Control Panel and double click an icon named something like Users and
Passwords, you should see an option box that is labeled "all users need to
use a password to access this computer". When you check it and reboot
you'll be prompted to choose who's logging in. Once you've logged in as
administrator you can add your Wife to the administrator group and she'll be
able to access all the files on the machine, then you can go back and
uncheck the box I mentioned.
Also, you could just choose the logoff <your wife's name> option in the
shutdown menu and logon as administrator afterwards.
There may be an easier way but these should work.
To transfer the administrator settings to your wife's account you can copy
the contents of the folder named administrator to the folder named <your
wife's name>.
I hope I understood your question correctly.

Joe

 

[lvee]

How to take ownership of files and folders,
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421