Admin accounts: different privileges

  • Thread starter Thread starter OldGrantonian
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OldGrantonian

I have WinXP Home on Dell Inspiron laptop.

I am the only user, but I have two Administrator accounts. The reason for
the second Administrator account is to allow me to gain access to my laptop
in case the first Administrator account is corrupted. (This happened a few
years ago on an older laptop. I had to re-install the OS.)

I've never had to use the second account, but I found out today that the
second Administrator can access everything (including Windows and System32),
but cannot access the Documents & Settings for the first Administator.

As an experiment, I created a third Admin account while logged in as the
second Admin.

Here are all the results. I named these accounts A1, A2, and A3 in the
sequence in which they were created.

A1 can access everything.
A2 can access everything except Docs&Settings for A1.
A3 can access everything except Docs&Settings for A1.

Is this OK?

If A1 is corrupted, can I no longer access the Docs&Settings for A1?
(Everything is backed up offline.)
 
OldGrantonian said:
I have WinXP Home on Dell Inspiron laptop.

I am the only user, but I have two Administrator accounts. The reason for
the second Administrator account is to allow me to gain access to my
laptop in case the first Administrator account is corrupted. (This
happened a few years ago on an older laptop. I had to re-install the OS.)

I've never had to use the second account, but I found out today that the
second Administrator can access everything (including Windows and
System32), but cannot access the Documents & Settings for the first
Administator.

As an experiment, I created a third Admin account while logged in as the
second Admin.

Here are all the results. I named these accounts A1, A2, and A3 in the
sequence in which they were created.

A1 can access everything.
A2 can access everything except Docs&Settings for A1.
A3 can access everything except Docs&Settings for A1.

Is this OK?

If A1 is corrupted, can I no longer access the Docs&Settings for A1?
(Everything is backed up offline.)
Click to expand...

In XP, all user accounts with administrative privileges are equal. You
probably made the My Documents for A1 private when you created the account.
So the behavior you're seeing is expected. You can undo the Make Private
option or, if you ever need to get the data from a different account, you
can take ownership of the files.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/books/homeandofficeuser/tips/040402.asp -
How to make My Documents Private in XP Home
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/undoprivate.htm - Ramesh - How to undo "Make this
folder private" option"

Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP [Q308421] -
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

How Do I Get the Security tab in Folder Properties? -
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_security_tab.htm

So I wouldn't worry unduly about this.

Malke
 
Hi Malke,

Thanks for the response.

Your following recommendation worked:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/undoprivate.htm - Ramesh - How to undo "Make this
folder private" option"
Click to expand...

Thanks for your help.



Malke said:
OldGrantonian said:
I have WinXP Home on Dell Inspiron laptop.

I am the only user, but I have two Administrator accounts. The reason for
the second Administrator account is to allow me to gain access to my
laptop in case the first Administrator account is corrupted. (This
happened a few years ago on an older laptop. I had to re-install the OS.)

I've never had to use the second account, but I found out today that the
second Administrator can access everything (including Windows and
System32), but cannot access the Documents & Settings for the first
Administator.

As an experiment, I created a third Admin account while logged in as the
second Admin.

Here are all the results. I named these accounts A1, A2, and A3 in the
sequence in which they were created.

A1 can access everything.
A2 can access everything except Docs&Settings for A1.
A3 can access everything except Docs&Settings for A1.

Is this OK?

If A1 is corrupted, can I no longer access the Docs&Settings for A1?
(Everything is backed up offline.)
Click to expand...

In XP, all user accounts with administrative privileges are equal. You
probably made the My Documents for A1 private when you created the account.
So the behavior you're seeing is expected. You can undo the Make Private
option or, if you ever need to get the data from a different account, you
can take ownership of the files.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/books/homeandofficeuser/tips/040402.asp -
How to make My Documents Private in XP Home
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/undoprivate.htm - Ramesh - How to undo "Make this
folder private" option"

Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP [Q308421] -
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

How Do I Get the Security tab in Folder Properties? -
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_security_tab.htm

So I wouldn't worry unduly about this.

Malke
Click to expand...
 
OldGrantonian said:
Hi Malke,

Thanks for the response.

Your following recommendation worked:
Click to expand...

Glad that sorted it for you. Thanks for taking the time to let me know.

Malke
 
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