New User Issue, Setting Up

[Piedmont]

I posted before but couldn't get a resolution to my situation. I'm setting
up a new user for me on my girl friends laptop. She is on as the
Administrator, I created a 'new User' for myself but software such as
Blackbery desktop, Google Chrome and the dial-up for my Blackberry don't
seem to be accesable, at least not readily> I did go to the Google chrome
folder and made it "sharable" with my user account but after going to my
account, still couldn't access it unless it went through permission by
administrator. I'm confused as I assumed that if any new user accounts were
set up that all software that was down loaded and install while in the
Administrators user account (my girl friend) that they would be easily
accessable in any new user accounts that we set up, right? wrong?

Piedmont

 

[Piedmont]

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Here's what I would do now to rectify the situation:

1. Set up user accounts properly. Your girlfriend should not be running as
Administrator. Her account should be a Standard user, as should yours.
Here's the explanation and how to do this:

You particularly don't want only one user account with administrative snip

So I would uninstall the programs with which you are having difficulties
and
then reinstall following the procedure in #2 above.

Malke

Excellent! Makes sense. I'm seeing that I can change the the 'account type'
of my girlfriends account to standard. Can I do that without messing things
up, If I do change her account which is administrator to standard, will a
new administartor account automatically create itself, in short is there an
easy way to fix things at this point, by change things I mean, make hers a
standard account and create a new admin account, then delete the google
chrome from her account and reinstall it in her or my new account so that it
will work in both?

Piedmont

 

[Piedmont]

It's working! Thanks very much!!! Set up a new CompAdmin account, changed
girlfriends account to standard and stuff that wouldn't come up on my
account are now showing up. I'll delete and reinstall any other programs
that aren' accessable to all and I should be looking good! Thanks again!
Piedmont

 

[Malke]

I posted before but couldn't get a resolution to my situation. I'm setting
up a new user for me on my girl friends laptop. She is on as the
Administrator, I created a 'new User' for myself but software such as
Blackbery desktop, Google Chrome and the dial-up for my Blackberry don't
seem to be accesable, at least not readily> I did go to the Google chrome
folder and made it "sharable" with my user account but after going to my
account, still couldn't access it unless it went through permission by
administrator. I'm confused as I assumed that if any new user accounts
were set up that all software that was down loaded and install while in
the Administrators user account (my girl friend) that they would be easily
accessable in any new user accounts that we set up, right? wrong?

When you install a program, often you are given a choice to install for all
users or just for the user account presently logged in. If your girlfriend
installed software like this and choose "just for myself", you would need
to reinstall the programs for your own user account.

If the programs didn't offer the choice, then they would have installed for
all users.

Making the program folders shareable isn't the answer. Perhaps whoever
installed the programs set them up to only run as Administrator (very bad
idea). There is really no way for me to know what you have done.

Here's what I would do now to rectify the situation:

1. Set up user accounts properly. Your girlfriend should not be running as
Administrator. Her account should be a Standard user, as should yours.
Here's the explanation and how to do this:

You particularly don't want only one user account with administrative
privileges on Vista because the built-in Administrator account (normally
only used in emergencies) is disabled by default. If you're running as
Administrator for your daily work and that account gets corrupted, things
will be Difficult. It isn't impossible to activate the built-in
Administrator to rescue things, but it will require third-party tools and
working outside the operating system.

The user account that is for your daily work should be a Standard user, with
the extra administrative user (call it something like "CompAdmin" or "Tech"
or the like) only there for elevation purposes. After you create
"CompAdmin", log into it and change your regular user account to Standard.
Then log back into your regular account.

2. When I install programs on Vista, I always install from a Standard user
account, providing elevation (UAC prompt) as necessary. With very few
exceptions, this works fine. For those programs whose installation
executables actually need to be run as administrator (as in a program that
needs to unpack its files/write to a protected area of the OS), I
right-click on the executable, choose "run as Administrator", and then
after installation I don't start the program (often the default at the end
of the install). I finish the installation and then start the program as
the Standard user, which creates the necessary files in that user's
profile. Firefox is a good example of this.

So I would uninstall the programs with which you are having difficulties and
then reinstall following the procedure in #2 above.

Malke

 

[Malke]

Excellent! Makes sense. I'm seeing that I can change the the 'account
type' of my girlfriends account to standard. Can I do that without messing
things up, If I do change her account which is administrator to standard,
will a new administartor account automatically create itself, in short is
there an easy way to fix things at this point, by change things I mean,
make hers a standard account and create a new admin account, then delete
the google chrome from her account and reinstall it in her or my new
account so that it will work in both?

You need to follow the directions I already gave you. From your girlfriend's
account (still administrative) create the new CompAdmin administrator
account. Log into CompAdmin and from there change your girlfriend's (and
yours if applicable) user account to Standard. It will not mess anything up
if you do it this way. Still in CompAdmin, uninstall the programs with
which you are having problems such as Chrome and Blackberry. Do this from
Control Panel>Programs and Features.

Now log into your (Standard) account or your girlfriend's (Standard)
account. It doesn't matter which. Reinstall Chrome and Blackberry, etc. You
will be asked to answer the UAC prompt with CompAdmin's password (it can be
a blank if you like).

Once you've installed the programs and started them from her Standard user
account, log off and log into your (Standard) account. You should see an
entry in your Start Menu for Chrome, etc. Start those programs from your
account so the correct files will be created for you.

Malke

 

[Malke]

It's working! Thanks very much!!! Set up a new CompAdmin account, changed
girlfriends account to standard and stuff that wouldn't come up on my
account are now showing up. I'll delete and reinstall any other programs
that aren' accessable to all and I should be looking good! Thanks again!
Piedmont

Glad that sorted it for you. Thanks for taking the time to let me know.

Malke