I am not too computer litterate. My brother helped me set it so in order to
use my computer at all you must enter a password. I am the only person who
knows the password and I change it often. I did this because my two teenage
daughters were always on line and I wanted to prevent them from go on while I
was not home. I tried to set parental controls and that is when I found out
that they activated the guest account, so I created the main log on password.
I don't know how and I tried everything I can think of but it now seems that
I would turn the guest account off on night and the next morning it would be
on again, this has been going on now for at least four months. Can anyone
help me with this problem? --
dancin queen
How are you determining that the Guest account is still active? Which Guest
account are you referring to? The one in the User's applet (machine
account) or one in some internet software that you use (account made
available by some ISPs for online activity)? These are two very different
things and XP controls only the machine's "Guest" account.
Meanwhile...
Your brother helped you set a password on your account. Did he remember to
add a password to the built in administrator account as well? If he didn't
password that account, the girls may be using it to access the computer. If
this is what they're doing, they may be resetting access to the guest
account.
You have XP Home so to access the built in Administrator account, boot to
Safe Mode.
To boot to Safe Mode, reboot and press F8 between POST (or the OEM splash
screen) and the screen that shows Windows starting to load. You have be
quick to get the timing right so suggest gently tapping the F8 key from
cold start until the Advanced Start menu appears. Once it appears, select
Safe Mode. Wait for the safe mode drivers to load and finally a welcome
screen will appear, showing the account "Administrator." Select that
account to log on. Unless the darling girls have added a password here, it
should be blank. So just press Enter for now to log on.
Once logged on, go to Control Panel> Users to create a password for this
built in account. Choose the password carefully - it will make life a whole
lot easier if you never forget what it is - make it difficult enough that
the girls can't guess what it is and simple enough that it is easily
remembered. Example: I use words or phrases but change letters to numbers
(6 for G's, 4 for "A" zero for "o" and so on) and then add a few upper case
letters and exclamations for embellishment.
Once all admin accounts are secured, try disabling the guest account again.
(Doesn't matter what admin account you do that from - the one you use
everyday or the built in account.) Hopefully it will stay disabled.
NOTE: While passwords will block many unwanted logons, anyone with physical
access and a bit of knowledge can gain access to an XP machine.
