user accounts and programs

[Paul]

I am relatively new to XP and still confused about user accounts and their
implications. My computer runs Windows XP Home and is set up with four user
accounts, all administrator as all four users need to install software.

Zonealarm and AVG run when any user is logged on, and (as far as I can tell)
don't have any user-specific settings. For example, in Zonealarm, whoever is
logged on sees the same list of programs with the same permissions to access
the trusted zone/internet. So any new entries resulting from any user's
activities are visible in the list when another user logs on.

However, other programs (such as Office) have user-specific settings (which
is all part of the purpose of separate user accounts). Is there a clear
distinction between these two types? How do I know if a particular program
is of one type or the other? Or is it a matter of how they are installed or
configured? As an example, are security/privacy settings in Internet
Explorer global or user-specific? And when I use Adaware and Spybot, do I
need to run them when logged on as each user in turn, or just once for the
whole computer?

 

[Guest]

You have got yourself set up fine, basically applications that store seperated user settings store there information in the hkey local user part of the registry and applications that store there settings on a per machine basis store there settings in hkey local machine. However most applications store data in both places (you didnt have to activate windows or office for each user, just for one of them and then it was activated for all for example).

This is just the basic nature of windows operation.

Hope that helps

Ashleigh

 

[Paul]

So how do I know the difference, or do I just have to use trial and error?
As I said, which type is IE, Adaware, Spybot .....?

You have got yourself set up fine, basically applications that store

seperated user settings store there information in the hkey local user part
of the registry and applications that store there settings on a per machine
basis store there settings in hkey local machine. However most applications
store data in both places (you didnt have to activate windows or office for
each user, just for one of them and then it was activated for all for
example).