PING sharon F

[David Bahr]

DAVID: Thanks for your informativereply. I am working through it. I will put
my additions to your reply as we go. Your reply is better worded than my
post. sorry for the puzzler of what I mean.

Hopefully Sharon F will answer this one.

I have tried your suggestions re surfing as a limited user. That's OK. But
the Administrator is in the Safe Mode along with any new programs I
downloaded through it. As I need to use those programs, it would appear
the
Administrator must be coaxed out of the Safe Mode.Once it is in the
Regular
Mode there I should have *no problems* downloading new programs using the
Administrator and they would (I think) be available for all users.

I don't understand what you're saying about safe mode.

With XP Home or Pro, there is built in account named Administrator (unless
renamed) that is a member of the administrator group. And new accounts
within the Administrator group can be added.

DAVID: Yes, I understand about the "built-in Administrator" It is this one I
refer to all along, in the Safe Mode. It appears it has the sole control
over what programs are downloaded. Worse, no-one else (it appears to me) can
use those programs.

In XP Home the built in account never sees the "light of day." It is always
available from Safe Mode only.

DAVID: That I understand.

In XP Pro, the built in account will appear on the welcome screen until
another account *within the administrator group* is created. At that point
it drops off of the welcome screen.

DAVID: Somehow, then, the Administrator has been usurped? It has been sent
to the Safe Mode. I have *never* had this problem in the three previous
computers I have owned.

The newly created account will appear on the welcome screen and be
available when operating in "normal mode."

For the "invisible" built in admin account there is no need to start in
Safe Mode to access this account again. Instead, at the welcome screen
press Ctrl+Alt+Del twice. This will bring up the classic logon screen. Type
in the name of the built in account and the password (if password is used).
Again, the name of this built in account is "Administrator" unless it's
been renamed.

DAVID: Understood. The hidden Administrator has not been renamed, but I did
change the password. Could this be the reason?

Best practice is to keep the built in account "in reserve." Use a separate
account in the administrator group for everyday stuff.

DAVID: None of the User Accounts in the Normal Mode are Administrators.

DAVID: I am using Windows XP Home. Although I have read the XP Pro (below) I
cannot understand how to open a new Administrator Account *outside* of the
Safe Zone. This possibly is the reason why I am having trouble. (Can you
persevere with me, please?)

Some folks using XP Pro will inadvertently use the built in account as
their everyday account. When/if it disappears, they get a little worried.
At this point they can:

Create a new admin account that will appear on the welcome screen without
any extra steps and transfer their files and settings over to it.
(preferred solution but more work)

DAVID. Now how does one create this new Administrator in the Regular Mode.
Last of my additions.

Or

Force the builtin account to appear on the welcome screen. (less desirable
solution but also less work)

So anyhow, the above is why I'm confused about your concern of the Admin
account being in safe mode. If using Home, you should already have an
account within the administrator group that is available from the welcome
screen. If using Pro, the built in account may have disappeared from the
welcome screen but it is still available for use with "normal mode."

I haven't switched to IE7 for XP yet (tried it once and it messed up access
with one of my POP3 accounts that I use regularly so uninstalled it; will
wait for it to come out of "preview" status before I try it again). If
there are some restrictions placed on an account in the administrator group
by security features in the new browser version, I haven't had to contend
with them yet. Also, this would then be an IE question and better presented
in one of the Internet Explorer newsgroups.

 

[Sharon F]

DAVID: Yes, I understand about the "built-in Administrator" It is this one I
refer to all along, in the Safe Mode. It appears it has the sole control
over what programs are downloaded. Worse, no-one else (it appears to me) can
use those programs.

By "what programs are downloaded," do you actually mean what programs are
installed? Downloading is the act of acquiring a file from another source -
example: downloading a setup file from the internet. Installing is the act
of running setup (in some cases running the downloaded file) so that the
application will be installed on your local disk.

While there are a few "super" powers for the built in Administrator
account, there is nothing magical about it when it comes to installing
software. Any account in the administrator group can install software. How
that software installs - is another story.

Many programs have an extra step during setup that ask if the software is
for just the current user or for all users. If not asked, it's anybody's
guess how that program will install. Might end up with a program that is
available for "all users" or for "just current user."

The difference here is caused by the person that wrote setup for the
program that you're trying to install. There's nothing that an
administrator account or the built in Administrator account can do to
change the outcome. There are some workarounds that an admin account can
perform to make software available to other accounts though. MVP Rick
Rogers has a nice synopsis of those workarounds on his website here:

http://www.rickrogers.org/xpsware.htm

 

[Sharon F]

DAVID: I am using Windows XP Home. Although I have read the XP Pro (below) I
cannot understand how to open a new Administrator Account *outside* of the
Safe Zone. This possibly is the reason why I am having trouble. (Can you
persevere with me, please?)

Log on to the admin account while in Safe Mode. Open Users in Control Panel
and create a new account (all new accounts in XP Home are in the
administrator group by default; it takes extra steps to make a limited user
account). You now have an "administrator account" (one within the
administrator group) that you can use in normal mode.

Log off and/or restart the computer.

The newly created account will appear on the welcome screen. Or if you do
not use the welcome screen, type the user name that you assigned to it
during its creation into the appropriate text box of the classic logon
dialog. If you did not create a password for the account, leave that field
blank.

See other reply for more info though. I'm thinking now that the "nut" of
your question is how to get software that wants to install for current user
only setup for all users instead. The link in the other reply will help
with that.