Extra "users" in "Documents and Settings"

[Ted Smith]

I have recently found what looks like extra garbage "users" in my "Documents
and Settings" folder and wonder if it is ok to just delete them. Of special
concern to me are the ones with "NT AUTHORITY...", and "WINXP..." They are
pretty small and I doubt that they are of any use. Also, the ones called
"Administrator" and "Owner" are very small and I never use them either.
Could they be deleted?

Administrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.6MB
All Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99.7MB
Default User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36MB
LocalService . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63MB
LocalService.NT AUTHORITY . . . . . . . . . . .57MB
LocalService.NT AUTHORITY.000 . . . . . . . .57MB
NetworkService . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54MB
NetworkService.NT AUTHORITY . . . . . . . . . .50MB
NetworkService.NT AUTHORITY.000 . . . . . .50MB
Owner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.0MB
Owner.WINXP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32MB
Owner.WINXP.000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.0MB
Ted Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253.0MB

 

[Nepatsfan]

I have recently found what looks like extra garbage "users"
in my "Documents and Settings" folder and wonder if it is ok
to just delete them. Of special concern to me are the ones
with "NT AUTHORITY...", and "WINXP..." They are pretty
small and I doubt that they are of any use. Also, the ones
called "Administrator" and "Owner" are very small and I
never use them either. Could they be deleted?

Administrator All Users Default User
LocalService
LocalService.NT AUTHORITY LocalService.NT AUTHORITY.000 .
NetworkService
NetworkService.NT AUTHORITY NetworkService.NT AUTHORITY.000
Owner Owner.WINXP Owner.WINXP.000 Ted Smith

Let's get the easy stuff out of the way first.

Every Windows XP system comes with a built-in Administrator
account. It's main purpose is to provide a way to access the
system if all other user accounts are corrupted. It's there for
emergencies. It cannot be deleted. Leave the Administrator
folder alone.

The All Users folder serves as a common storage place for files
that are used by all user accounts. Most of your Start menu
entries and Desktop icons are stored within this folder. Leave
that folder alone.

The Default Users folder is a template that is used when you
create a new user account. Leave it alone.

You can probably guess what the Ted Smith folder is so let's
move on to the hard stuff.

You have triplets of three accounts, LocalService,
NetworkService and Owner. LocalService and NetworkService are
accounts that Windows created. Something tells me that the
reason you have three copies is because someone tried to
reinstall Windows twice without formatting the hard drive. My
advice is to leave those folders alone.

As for the Owner folders, your first step should be to go into
Control Panel -> User Accounts and see if there is an Owner
accounts listed. Since you aren't using this account, you can
delete it. You will be asked if you want to delete the accounts
files. Answer yes and you'll find one of those Owner folders
will disappear. You should be able to delete the other two.

Good luck

Nepatsfan