How to make an exact duplicate of the admin. account?

[Dennis Q. Wilson]

I'm working on a friend's PC that has no user accounts, only an
administrator account. The system is set up pretty well to my friend's
liking, but I think he should clone the administrator account,
password-protect the administrator account and run from the clone.

My question is, how do I go about making an exact duplicate of the
administrator account (i.e., so that all settings and preferences are
preserved in the clone)?

Thanks to any and all who can help.

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Create the new account and log into it. Leave it as an Administrator. Create a 3rd administrator level user account and log into it. You cannot copy a user profile to/from the account you're logged on to.

Copy a User Profile:

Open System in Control Panel. On the User Profiles tab, and under Profiles stored on this computer, click the user profile you want to copy, and then click Copy To.

In the Copy To dialog box, under Copy profile to, type the location for the new profile, or click Browse to select the path.
Click Change to open the Choose User dialog box, click a new user from the Names list, and then click Add. The new user name will appear in Add Name. Click OK to add the user as a new user profile on your computer.

Note: You must be logged on as an administrator to the local computer to copy user profiles. To open a Control Panel item, click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click the appropriate icon.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;811151
How to Copy User Data to a New User Profile

 

[Dennis Q. Wilson]

Create the new account and log into it. Leave it as an Administrator. Create a 3rd administrator level user account and log into it. You cannot copy a user profile to/from the account you're logged on to.

Copy a User Profile:

Open System in Control Panel. On the User Profiles tab, and under Profiles stored on this computer, click the user profile you want to copy, and then click Copy To.

In the Copy To dialog box, under Copy profile to, type the location for the new profile, or click Browse to select the path.
Click Change to open the Choose User dialog box, click a new user from the Names list, and then click Add. The new user name will appear in Add Name. Click OK to add the user as a new user profile on your computer.

Note: You must be logged on as an administrator to the local computer to copy user profiles. To open a Control Panel item, click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click the appropriate icon.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;811151
How to Copy User Data to a New User Profile

Thanks, Doug! That's kind of how I pictured the process, but I wanted
to be sure before starting. The only thing worse than screwing up your
*own* PC is doing it to somebody else's.

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

You're welcome