Administrator account

R

R&J W

I'm a bit confused.

I've just clean installed WinXP pro and dutifully typed in an
administrator's password during setup (and actually made a note of it)!

I'm now at the 'setting up user's accounts stage'. I've decided to have
just one user account for a family of two, a limited account allowing both
members to have access to all the installed apps and data files (as happens
on our old ME machine, a visible guest account for friends and relations and
leave the administartor account for things essentially administrative.

I've tried changing the family user account to limited but am informed that
at least one account must have admin rights.

So where is the password protected administrators account I thought I'd
created during setup? Or had I only created a password at that stage? Do I
have to create a new Administrator's account with the password chosen during
setup or is there a useable admin account hidden somewhere (in which case
I'd like it to be shown along with the other accounts at the login stage.

Incidentally, is it possible to enable/disable the password for a limited
user account at will? I'm thinking of not making the family user account
password protected other than at times when the guest account might be used
or when the house is empty.

Regards,

Ros
 
K

Kelly

Hi Ros,

It should be listed if you haven't created another account with admin
privileges. Either way:

On Pro Edition, from the Welcome Screen, press ctrl-Alt-Delete Twice.

Tip:

TweakUI/Logon/Show Administrator on the Welcome Screen
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp

Or...

Enable/Disable Administrator on Welcome Screen (Line 5)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Note:

If you have disabled the built in administrator account, booting into
Safe Mode will automatically enable it again (temporarily, for that
Safe Mode session).

--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com
 
R

Rock

R&J W said:
I'm a bit confused.

I've just clean installed WinXP pro and dutifully typed in an
administrator's password during setup (and actually made a note of it)!

I'm now at the 'setting up user's accounts stage'. I've decided to have
just one user account for a family of two, a limited account allowing both
members to have access to all the installed apps and data files (as happens
on our old ME machine, a visible guest account for friends and relations and
leave the administartor account for things essentially administrative.

I've tried changing the family user account to limited but am informed that
at least one account must have admin rights.

So where is the password protected administrators account I thought I'd
created during setup? Or had I only created a password at that stage? Do I
have to create a new Administrator's account with the password chosen during
setup or is there a useable admin account hidden somewhere (in which case
I'd like it to be shown along with the other accounts at the login stage.

Incidentally, is it possible to enable/disable the password for a limited
user account at will? I'm thinking of not making the family user account
password protected other than at times when the guest account might be used
or when the house is empty.

Regards,

Ros
Click to expand...

For the account your guest's will use, make that a limited account as
well. Don't use the built in guest account - disable that one.
 
R

R&J W

Well, this is why I'm confused!

Pressing 'ctrl-alt-delete' twice brings up the 'family user account AND it
has admin privileges (though I didn't nominate it for admin privileges when
creating it. The passworded 'Administrator' account, ie the one I chose a
password for during setup, doesn't come up at all.

It's when I try to change the family account user from having admin
privileges that I get the message 'You must assign another user on this
computer with a computer admin account before you can change this user's
account type. This ensures that there is always at least one user with a
comp admin acct on this computer.'

Instead of this message, I had expected to see an Admin account appear with
the password I chose during setup. And that's the question. Where is that
account? Was the password properly saved during setup or has something gone
pearshaped, temporarily or permanently?

What's suspect about the guest account by-the-way - and can I en/disable
passwords on the fly?

(Now the cat's been sick and the printer's run out of ink.) It's just one
of those dasy*~¬+*
 
R

Rock

R&J W said:
Well, this is why I'm confused!

Pressing 'ctrl-alt-delete' twice brings up the 'family user account AND it
has admin privileges (though I didn't nominate it for admin privileges when
creating it. The passworded 'Administrator' account, ie the one I chose a
password for during setup, doesn't come up at all.

It's when I try to change the family account user from having admin
privileges that I get the message 'You must assign another user on this
computer with a computer admin account before you can change this user's
account type. This ensures that there is always at least one user with a
comp admin acct on this computer.'

Instead of this message, I had expected to see an Admin account appear with
the password I chose during setup. And that's the question. Where is that
account? Was the password properly saved during setup or has something gone
pearshaped, temporarily or permanently?

What's suspect about the guest account by-the-way - and can I en/disable
passwords on the fly?

(Now the cat's been sick and the printer's run out of ink.) It's just one
of those dasy*~¬+*
Click to expand...

Did you type in "administrator" without the quotes, and then the
password when logging in?

The guest account, AFAIK, has admin privileges, so your guests can do
whatever they want to mess up your system - create another limited user
account for them to use.
 
S

Stan Brown

If you have disabled the built in administrator account, booting into
Safe Mode will automatically enable it again (temporarily, for that
Safe Mode session).
Click to expand...

Thanks! That's what I was wondering about myself. I have the built-
in Admin account and a separate admin account that I actually use
(plus a limited account, of course).

Just last night I read advice in Steve Sinchak's HACKING WINDOWS XP
to disable the built-in account _and_ rename it. I was planning to
ask today whether that made sense, but I guess I have my answer.
:)
 
J

joeu2004

Rock said:
R&J W wrote:
For the account your guest's will use, make that a limited account
as well. Don't use the built in guest account - disable that one.
Click to expand...

Probably good advice. But the built-in guest account
has a cute suitcase icon, which I do not see in the
list of icons for user accounts :-(.
 
N

NobodyMan

For the account your guest's will use, make that a limited account as
well. Don't use the built in guest account - disable that one.
Click to expand...

The built-in Guest account is disabled by default in XP Pro.
 
K

Kelly

Easy enough to fix, Joe. Navigate to:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\User Account
Pictures

Copy: guest.bmp

And paste it here:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\User Account
Pictures\Default Pictures

--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com
 

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