Adding user accounts for file sharing purposes

  • Thread starter Thread starter Marianne B.
  • Start date Start date
M

Marianne B.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding is that,
with simple file sharing disabled in XP Pro, it is necessary to
add users with the same usernames and passwords as the
users that will be accessing files over the LAN, to the computer
that will be sharing files. There will then be a separate user
profile for each of these new users, even though none will ever
be actually sitting at that PC or using the desktop, etc.

Are there any guidelines for paring down the size of these user
profiles so that they take up less space in Documents and
Settings?

Thanks,

M.B.
 
Marianne said:
Please correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding is that,
with simple file sharing disabled in XP Pro, it is necessary to
add users with the same usernames and passwords as the
users that will be accessing files over the LAN, to the computer
that will be sharing files. There will then be a separate user
profile for each of these new users, even though none will ever
be actually sitting at that PC or using the desktop, etc.

Are there any guidelines for paring down the size of these user
profiles so that they take up less space in Documents and
Settings?
Click to expand...

You are correct in your understanding if the computers are in a
Workgroup and not a domain. The user profiles, if not actively used, do
not take up a great deal of room and with the size of today's hard
drives, this is not an issue even on an older 40GB drive.

If you need to have many people logging on and sharing files, consider
either:

1. Setting up a domain instead. You will need a machine running a server
operating system.

2. Obviously I don't know your situation, but you might not want to have
individual user accounts; ex. in a school situation you might just want
all students to log onto the "Student" account.

If you need more help, then please post back with details of your
network - how many users, workstations, why they all need to share
files among the peer-to-peer computers instead of using a centralized
server, etc.

Malke
 
A user profile will not be created unless that user actually logs onto the
computer locally. --- Steve
 
Thanks for the replies.
Added all usernames and passwords and, to prevent
accidental local logins, changed settings so only the account
of the local user shows on the login screen.
No additional user profiles have appeared in Documents
and Settings, so it appears there is no wasted space.
Neat.

M.B.
 
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