Limited User Account has too much access to computer

[SteveParks]

Hello to anyone with the knowledge!
I'm using XP Home Svc pack 2. My first problem is that I would like the
access of more folders to be restricted to limited user accounts on my
computer. I don't understand why in the sharing tab (under properties) of
some folders I can check "make this folder private" and in other folders,
this is not checkable or uncheckable. I would think that any folder on the
Administrator's account should be denied access to a Limited account, not
just the Administrator's My Docs folder.

My second problem and the reason why I'm here is that I have an external
hard drive connected by USB. I can go into the Guest user account, and have
total access to that external hard drive. Is there a way for the
Administrator to block access to this or any other connected device that
shows up in My Computer? If not, then why not? This seems to be a very basic
and important feature of having multiple user accounts on one shared machine.

I do not want to encrypt the contents of my external hard drive, nor do I
want to unplug the drive and lock it up somewhere every time I leave the
computer.

Thank you for your time.

Steve

 

[Anteaus]

XP Home has only limited control over what users can access, and is not
officially designed to allow you to either set NTFS permissions direcly, or
create non-administrator users. There are hacks to allow this, but if it
breaks as a result... you get to keep both pieces.

Home doesn't allow data encryption, either. Though I have reservations about
using EFS in any case, owing to the number of reports of lost data. It's
probably OK in the hands of a trained Admin, but for a home user who doesn't
understand the key-management aspects it's messing with C4.

Options are to upgrade to Pro, or to use a third-party product such as
Truecrypt.
http://truecrypt.org

 

[SteveParks]

thanks, this helps!

XP Home has only limited control over what users can access, and is not
officially designed to allow you to either set NTFS permissions direcly, or
create non-administrator users. There are hacks to allow this, but if it
breaks as a result... you get to keep both pieces.

Home doesn't allow data encryption, either. Though I have reservations about
using EFS in any case, owing to the number of reports of lost data. It's
probably OK in the hands of a trained Admin, but for a home user who doesn't
understand the key-management aspects it's messing with C4.

Options are to upgrade to Pro, or to use a third-party product such as
Truecrypt.
http://truecrypt.org