New User - Administrative Acount Question

[Shenan Stanley]

I am using a stand alone computer in an environment where I don't
have to worry about anyone else using my computer. Are there any
benefits to opening another account for myself? If so, do I have
to switch back to the Administrative to make changes? This
information wasn't clear to me when I read Microsoft's XP Home
Edition documentation that came with the setup disk.

You should not (whether you are the sole user of your computer or not) run
as an administrative user all the time. You should have a regular user
account you use for daily use simply because of the protection that gives
you. A regular user is less likely to get infested with
spyware/adware/malware/viruses/trojans/worms and so on because of lack of
judgement or any of that.. Not to mention that although you may be the only
user right now - what if someone comes to visit - you go to use the toilet
and come back and they have infested your machine with spyware by surfing
the web?

In other words - do it - you won't regret it.
And for installations - yeah - you have to use the administrator account.
Again - that is why running as a regular user is such a good idea.

 

[John R Weiss]

I am using a stand alone computer in an environment where I don't have to worry
about anyone else using my computer. Are there any benefits to opening another
account for myself? If so, do I have to switch back to the Administrative to
make changes? This information wasn't clear to me when I read Microsoft's XP
Home Edition documentation that came with the setup disk.

I found it very tedious to use an account without Administrator privileges, what
with all the automatic system and application updates running these days. You
can try it, but I think you'll soon upgrade the account privileges...

OTOH, I believe it is a good idea to open a separate user account for yourself
anyhow. If you somehow lock yourself out of it, you still have the
Administrator account to fall back on. I just had to rebuild a Win2K system for
a friend whose daughter forgot her password, and they couldn't get into the
system at all...

 

[Brian K]

I am using a stand alone computer in an environment where I don't have
to worry about anyone else using my computer. Are there any benefits to
opening another account for myself? If so, do I have to switch back to
the Administrative to make changes? This information wasn't clear to me
when I read Microsoft's XP Home Edition documentation that came with the
setup disk.

Thanks.

--
________
To email me, Edit "blog" from my email address.
Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951