new admin account

[shorepot15]

At present I only have two users set up - my passworded user account
which is an admin account, and Guest.
We're always advised not to use an Admin account all the time, just a
limited account. What's the best way of introducing this change some
years down the line and keep everything working smoothly? Is it safest
to create a new admin account and then downgrade my current user
account?
Any advice much appreciated

 

[gordon]

At present I only have two users set up - my passworded user account
which is an admin account, and Guest.
We're always advised not to use an Admin account all the time, just a
limited account. What's the best way of introducing this change some
years down the line and keep everything working smoothly? Is it safest
to create a new admin account and then downgrade my current user
account?
Any advice much appreciated

You already have another admin account - it's called "Administrator" so you
can just downgrade your current admin account to limited.

BTW, unless you have XP Home and need the guest account for networking,
disable it. Even the MS Baseline Security Advisor marks it as a security
risk. If you need an account for casual users to access the machine, then
create a limited account and call it "visitor" or something similar.

 

[shorepot15]

Brilliant - thanks for that info.
I don't see any other account at logon. Is it possible that I renamed
Administrator when I first set it up?

 

[shorepot15]

Oh and I've just tried to downgrade my account and it says I can't: it
says I need to assign another user with a computer administrator
account.
I'm using XP home by the way

 

[gordon]

Brilliant - thanks for that info.
I don't see any other account at logon. Is it possible that I renamed
Administrator when I first set it up?

You wouldn't see it - as soon as you create another Admin account, the
built-in Administrator account gets hidden....

 

[Malke]

Oh and I've just tried to downgrade my account and it says I can't: it
says I need to assign another user with a computer administrator
account.
I'm using XP home by the way

Create a second user account which has administrative privileges and
keep it for emergencies. You don't even need to log into it but you will
be glad to have it if your single Administrator account becomes corrupted.


Malke