XP Guest account...administrator denied access

[jbues1976]

My boyfriend went on my guest account, (I have Windows XP Home Edition) which
is a somewhat of a normal occurance, and tried to download Yahoo Messenger so
that we can talk whie I am out of town. He said he was able to DOWNLOAD
messenger, but was not able to run it (run the .exe), getting an error
message...something administrator access denied. He thinks i've done
something to the computer to where he can't get the messenger! Please help us
explain this occurance to him. I believe it is because the guest account is
by default a limited account. If you can give me details on how this happens,
how Windows Guest is set up, anything that will help me in explaining this to
him, I will appreciate it sooooo much!!

Thank you!!!
Jen

 

[Leonard Agoado]

...something administrator access denied. He thinks i've done
something to the computer to where he can't get the messenger!

Jen,

You have done something. You have wisely limited him to a guest
account. The fact that he does not understand what this means demonstrates
that he should not have access to an administrative account on your machine.

Please help us
explain this occurance to him. I believe it is because the guest account
is
by default a limited account.

You are correct, but who is us? Is there a threesome going on here or
what?

If you can give me details on how this happens,
how Windows Guest is set up, anything that will help me in explaining this
to
him, I will appreciate it sooooo much!!

You've done as good a job as can be. Your boyfriend is compromised.
Either get a new one, or flatten and rebuild this one.

Regards,

Len Agoado
(e-mail address removed)

 

[jbues1976]

Thank you, First of all Leonardo. I appreciate your attempt at understanding
my dribble. ("Us" was a typo..btw lol about threesome comment). But
seriously, I wasn't there when this happened. I am out of town. He states the
when he downloaded yahoo messenger, it DOWNLOADED fine, but when he clicked
on the exe to install it, he got a message stating something of the effect
the administrator denied access." Now of course, since I am the
administrator, he thinks it is something that I have personally done. All I
did to set up the guest account was click on user accounts and clicked on
activate Guest or whatever the button says. It wasn't anything complicated or
anything, just clicked and turned in on.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

My boyfriend went on my guest account, (I have Windows XP Home
Edition) which is a somewhat of a normal occurance, and tried to
download Yahoo Messenger so that we can talk whie I am out of town.
He said he was able to DOWNLOAD messenger, but was not able to run
it (run the .exe), getting an error message...something
administrator access denied. He thinks i've done something to the
computer to where he can't get the messenger! Please help us
explain this occurance to him. I believe it is because the guest
account is by default a limited account. If you can give me details
on how this happens, how Windows Guest is set up, anything that
will help me in explaining this to him, I will appreciate it sooooo
much!!

Jen,

You have done something. You have wisely limited him to a guest
account. The fact that he does not understand what this means
demonstrates that he should not have access to an administrative
account on your machine.

You are correct, but who is us? Is there a threesome going on
here or what?

You've done as good a job as can be. Your boyfriend is
compromised. Either get a new one, or flatten and rebuild this one.

Thank you, First of all Leonardo. I appreciate your attempt at
understanding my dribble. ("Us" was a typo..btw lol about threesome
comment). But seriously, I wasn't there when this happened. I am
out of town. He states the when he downloaded yahoo messenger, it
DOWNLOADED fine, but when he clicked on the exe to install it, he
got a message stating something of the effect the administrator
denied access." Now of course, since I am the administrator, he
thinks it is something that I have personally done. All I did to
set up the guest account was click on user accounts and clicked on
activate Guest or whatever the button says. It wasn't anything
complicated or anything, just clicked and turned in on.

Simply put...

You stated you set him up using the 'guest' account.
Guest accounts cannot install software - they do not have the necessary
rights.
That is what the message is telling you.

In order to install the software - someone will have to log into the
computer with the proper rights to install - period. Your account likely
has those rights, guest does not.

Unless you have your system setup where you can get to it remotely or you
trust someone with the credentials to log into your system with higher
rights than the guest has (specifically - rights to install software) - then
there is not much else to be done.

Did *you* do something? Technically - yes. You only allowed your boyfriend
to use your computer as 'guest'.

Was what you did a 'bad' thing? Not that I see, as you know (or now know)
the guest account is *very* limited - which keeps those who are using it frm
messing up your computer.

Is there a solution? Only if you allow your boyfriend to logon to the
computer as you or some other account with the necessary rights - but that
also opens up a whole new set of issues.

 

[Leonard Agoado]

Thank you, First of all Leonardo. I appreciate your attempt at
understanding
my dribble. ("Us" was a typo..btw lol about threesome comment). But
seriously, I wasn't there when this happened. I am out of town. He
states the
when he downloaded yahoo messenger, it DOWNLOADED fine, but when he
clicked
on the exe to install it, he got a message stating something of the
effect
the administrator denied access." Now of course, since I am the
administrator, he thinks it is something that I have personally done.
All I
did to set up the guest account was click on user accounts and clicked
on
activate Guest or whatever the button says. It wasn't anything
complicated or
anything, just clicked and turned in on.

Jen,

Thanks for laughing at my smart-alek jokes, but what I was trying to
get across was that your question contained its own answer. You
created a Guest account, a Guest account has limited privileges, he
cannot install the software while logged in as Guest.

Your solution is to have him log in as you to install the software.
The issue with that is a personal, not a technical, one. Do you want
him to have unlimited access to your PC while you are away, and more
generally do you think that someone that does not understand enough
about the subject to know that a guest account has limits should be
allowed to monkey about as an administrator.

As for helping explain this to him, that's out of our area also.
Have him Google - Guest account security windows - and he should be able
to understand it all on his own without anyone having to hold his hand.
If that doesn't do it, you need to 'flatten and rebuild' - i.e. find a
new one. This one's not bright enough for you.

Regards,

Len Agoado
(e-mail address removed)