Where are these Administrators?

[Joseph MacFarlane]

I've had a miserable time trying to install Norton Internet Security. One
possible cause is more than one administrator. Looking at User Accounts
there is only one Administrator - Me - and Guest is off. However, when I
run Baseline Security Analyzer, it shows three Administrators: (1)
"Administrator," (2) Me, and (3) a long alphneumeric series.

How do I find and rid my computer of the two extra administrators?

Joseph MacFarlane
(e-mail address removed)

 

[jeffrey]

Hi,

The Administrator is the default Admin account, you can`t delete it and you
don`t want to. The Me accout I guess is you, which is the second admin.
The guest account should be disable. If you go to control panel >
administrator tools > computer management > local user and group > users,
you should see all the accounts that are there. You should see
administrator, guest, (your account), maybe helpassistant (its the remote
desktop help assistant), maybe two accounts named SUPPORT_xxxxxx
(CN=Microsoft Corporporation, L=Readmon, S=Washington,C=US). If you
installed .net, you will probably have a .net account as well.

The default Administrator account should not be used, only use it when your
account or other account becomes corrupted. You should also make sure the
default Administrator account has a strong password. People will state that
your own user account shouldn`t have admin rights, but depending on how well
you protect your computer, you can keep it with admin rights, but to be on a
safe side, should be poweruser or just a user though. Guest account can`t
be delete unfortunately, but can be renamed though.

Jeff

 

[Joseph MacFarlane]

Hi Jef,

Thank you for responding. I find, however, that I can only follow your the
steps so far. Control Pannel > Administrator Tools > Computer Management -
worked fine. But, once that last icon is clicked, I get Computer Management
(Local) with the following sub-categories:

System Tools
Event Viewer
Shared Folders
Performance Logs and Alerts
Device Manager
Storage
Removable Storage
Disk Defragmenter
Disk Management
Services and Applications
Services
WMI Control
Indexing Service

There is no Local User and Group. Do you, or anyone, have another
suggestion?

Joe

 

[jeffrey]

Hi,

Are you running XP Pro or XP Home? If its XP home, you will not have that
one category.

Jeff

 

[Joseph MacFarlane]

Jef,
It's XP Home I'm running.
Joe

Hi,

Are you running XP Pro or XP Home? If its XP home, you will not have that
one category.

Jeff

 

[jeffrey]

Hi,

XP home won`t have that one selection then. I don`t work with XP Home much,
so I can`t tell you much. I do have one notebook with XP Home on it, but
the OS is in Japanese and I don`t read enough Japanese for me to understand
all the menu`s. I`m not sure, but if you go into safe mode and log in as
the administrator, you might have more options for account management. If
you haven`t already, make sure the admin account has a password. But as for
accounts, you seem to have the normal default ones plus your account. The
default ones like I said before can not be deleted, but you can rename them
though.

Jeff

 

[Joseph MacFarlane]

Hello Jef,

Sorry for the delay - other matters moved to the fore. Thank you; going
safe mode exposed the default Admin and Myself. It didn't, however show
that alphaneumeric administarator. I don't know if this will ever be
resolved. I just wish I had never upgraded "Norton Internet Security" -
everything worked well before that.

Joe