user accounts

[Guest]

I am using Windows XP, and I have three accounts set up on my computer. I only resently set up the user accounts to keep my children from changing settings or removing things that they do not know what they are. So it has really slowed my computer down, or atleast something has, What do I need to do so they can have access to things they have downloaded, without having three of the same things take up space on my hard drive?

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Lorie,

While programs are available to all users, they're usually only installed once, with shortcuts created that are accessible to all users. When you enable multiple accounts, more often than not, the resulting slowdown is the fact that the kids don't log off. So you have multiple users logged in. Even though the account in the background isn't "active", the programs that are loaded, the user's profile and other things are still resident in memory and taking up resources.

You need to ensure that your kids understand, when they're done, log off. Disabling their account for a week or two will reinforce this.