Guest Account - Passwords

[Guest]

Is it possible to add a password for the Guest Account in Windows XP Home ?

 

[Steven L Umbach]

You could but I think it makes more sense to just create another user
account that has a password. --- Steve

 

[Guest]

While that is a valid point I'm kind of thinking more about PC security, the
Guest Account is a potential security hazard and you can't actually disable
the thing, so that brings me back to my original question, how can you give
the Guest Account a password ?

I'm not sure but, maybe the net user command can do it........... ?

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Sure you can disable it in XP Pro or XP Home. The easiest way is via the
command line using net user guest /active:no . --- Steve

 

[Guest]

Well yes there is that, that will probably disable it, but you shouldn't
really do that, I think ?
I guess what I meant to say was that you can't remove it from XP, anyway
we're getting away from the point of the subject here

Guest Account Password, would net user guest <password> be the way to it ?

 

[Nepatsfan]

(e-mail address removed),

While that is a valid point I'm kind of thinking more about
PC security, the Guest Account is a potential security
hazard and you can't actually disable the thing, so that
brings me back to my original question, how can you give the
Guest Account a password ?

I'm not sure but, maybe the net user command can do
it........... ?

First off, go into Control Panel -> User Account and turn on
the Guest account.
Next, while logged on with an account that's a member of the
administrators group, open a command prompt window.
Enter the following,
net user guest password

Go back to User Accounts and click on the icon for the Guest
account.
You should now be able to assign this account a password.
Reboot the computer when you are finished.

Here are a few articles with details:

Protecting Shared Folders In Windows XP Home
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_zdpcm/is_200302/ai_ziff35233#continue

Applying A Password to the Guest account
http://www.tweakxp.com/article37388.aspx

Note: In order to remove the password from the Guest account,
go back into User Account, click on the Guest icon and select
Remove Password. If you need to change the password at a
command prompt, enter the following:

net user guest *

You'll see a prompt to enter the new password twice. Leave it
blank if you want to revert to the default setting.

Remember to turn off the Guest account in Control Panel as well
if you're trying to go back to where you were before you
started making all these changes.

Personally, I think you're going to find that thus is going to
turn out to be more trouble than it's worth. If you're really
concerned about the security of files on your computer you
should be running XP Pro.

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Yes you could give it a password that way or via the other ways that you can
manage user accounts in XP that varies depending on if your are using XP
Home or XP Pro. Unless you have a reason to use the guest account I think it
is a great idea to disable it as it is in enterprise network domains and it
does not hurt to give it a password also. You can not remove it as it is one
of two accounts hard coded in the operating system with the other one being
the built in administrator account. The major threat of the guest account is
that it allows anonymous access to network shares that allow access to
"everyone" if it is enabled with or without a password on computers using
Windows NT4.0/2000/2003/XP Pro. The main ways to mitigate that threat for
operating systems that use "classic user authentication" is to disable the
guest account and make sure that there are no shares that include guests or
everyone with allow permissions. --- Steve