Admin Account(s)

[Boris]

I'm running WinXP Home on a laptop. I originally set it up with just one
user account, with admin. rights, of course, and no password. For years,
all I had to do was turn on the laptop, and my desktop loaded up. I
didn't have to select a user or use a password. It just loaded up, ready
to use.(The system automatically created a 'Guest' account.)

Basically, the user accounts were:

Me (administrator)
Guest

A few months ago, I wanted to install a new printer and driver, but the
OS kept telling me I didn't have administrator rights to do so. So,I
created an administrator account. Now, when I turn the laptop on, I'm
presented with a choice of two users:

Me (administrator)
Administrator

No password is needed for either.

The 'Me' account will give me access to my particular desktop settings
and files, while Administrator gives me a more sparse desktop, just the
basic icons, and fewer files show up in Explorer. I haven't dug too deep
in Explorer, but I suspect that it will let me see all the 'Me' files.
Yes?

My main question is what is the difference in priviliges/rights between
these two user accounts? Since both are called administrator, do they
act the same?

TIA

 

[jim]

I'm running WinXP Home on a laptop. I originally set it up with just one
user account, with admin. rights, of course, and no password. For years,
all I had to do was turn on the laptop, and my desktop loaded up. I
didn't have to select a user or use a password. It just loaded up, ready
to use.(The system automatically created a 'Guest' account.)

Basically, the user accounts were:

Me (administrator)
Guest

A few months ago, I wanted to install a new printer and driver, but the
OS kept telling me I didn't have administrator rights to do so.

Right click on installation file , click on " install as administrator " .



So,I

 

[John Wunderlich]

I'm running WinXP Home on a laptop. I originally set it up with
just one user account, with admin. rights, of course, and no
password. For years, all I had to do was turn on the laptop, and
my desktop loaded up. I didn't have to select a user or use a
password. It just loaded up, ready to use.(The system
automatically created a 'Guest' account.)

Basically, the user accounts were:

Me (administrator)
Guest

A few months ago, I wanted to install a new printer and driver,
but the OS kept telling me I didn't have administrator rights to
do so. So,I created an administrator account. Now, when I turn
the laptop on, I'm presented with a choice of two users:

Me (administrator)
Administrator

No password is needed for either.

The 'Me' account will give me access to my particular desktop
settings and files, while Administrator gives me a more sparse
desktop, just the basic icons, and fewer files show up in
Explorer. I haven't dug too deep in Explorer, but I suspect that
it will let me see all the 'Me' files. Yes?

My main question is what is the difference in priviliges/rights
between these two user accounts? Since both are called
administrator, do they act the same?

TIA

It doesn't matter what the accounts are called. If the user is a
member of the "Administrators" group, then it has administrator
privilege.

The quick way to check for admininstrator privilege is to
right-click on "Start". If "Open All Users" is one of the options
that pops up, then you probably have Administrator rights. The
longer way to verify is to bring up a command prompt window
(Start-> Run -> "cmd")
and enter the command:
net localgroup Administrators
and you will get a list of all users who are administrators.

Installers try to install files in certain directories and add
entries to the registry. If they are unable to create a file or
registry entry for any reason, they take the quick and easy way out
and blame it on the user not having Administrator privilege which is
not always the case. Administrators are users like any other and
can be denied access to any file or registry entry. Having
Administrator privilege does not give the user Carte Blanche access
to any file, folder, or registry entry. It does, however, give the
user the right to change the access rights.

So to solve your printer install problem, you need to find out which
file, folder, or registry entry is not allowing you access. Not
always an easy process, but the program "Process Monitor" might
help.

Process Monitor: <http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645>

HTH,
JW