User Account Problems! Help!

[Guest]

I have 2 user accounts (mine and my wife's) on my laptop running Windows XP
professional, both with administrator rights. While logged onto my account,
I clicked on start/all programs/microsoft office then clicked on MS Word and
dragged it onto my desktop.

Now when my wife logs into her account, not only does MS Word not show up on
her desktop, but it doesn't even appear on the start/all programs/microsoft
office folder (or any other folder for that matter).

I guess rather than click and drag onto my desktop I should have
right-clicked and created a shortcut instead. The question now is how do I
fix this so my wife can get it (and any other programs she may want) onto her
desktop?

 

[monkeypincher]

I have 2 user accounts (mine and my wife's) on my laptop running Windows XP
professional, both with administrator rights. While logged onto my account,
I clicked on start/all programs/microsoft office then clicked on MS Word and
dragged it onto my desktop.

Now when my wife logs into her account, not only does MS Word not show up on
her desktop, but it doesn't even appear on the start/all programs/microsoft
office folder (or any other folder for that matter).

I guess rather than click and drag onto my desktop I should have
right-clicked and created a shortcut instead. The question now is how do I
fix this so my wife can get it (and any other programs she may want) onto her
desktop?

Shouldn't be too hard. Besides your and your wifes account, there is a
special account called All Users. Your start menu is a compilation of
the All Users and your particular login's account, your wifes is her's
and All users. All Users is where the Word Icon was, and when you drug
it from the Start menu, you actually drug it from the All Users account
folder (where everyone had access to it) to your own desktop, which
only you can see.

Use Windows Explorer to poke around on your hard drive under the
Documents and Settings folder. You may need to go to Tools/Folder
Options/View and check the "Display the contents of system folders" and
"Show hidden files and folders" boxes to see all the files and folders
in there. You should see your and your wifes login names there, as
well as All Users, Default User, and perhaps Administrator. Drill down
your account branch to the Desktop folder. You should see the Word
shortcut there (plus everything else on your desktop). Copy that guy
(Rt-click/copy) and then drill down the All Users branch to the Start
Menu/Programs folder. Find the folder where the shortcut used to be
and paste it there.

If you poke around the Documents and Settings folder, you'll probably
get the hang of what XP is doing. Desktop is, well, you know. Start
Menu is, yes, the Start Menu, etc. etc.