Administrator Account'

  • Thread starter Thread starter Summer1
  • Start date Start date
Move shortcuts from from where to the desktop folder in the 'All Users' folder?

No shortcuts require Admin access.

After I move the shortcuts, ddo I have to 'delete' anything fr4om either
Admin or User?
 
Just to be clear here:

There are no files in 'User Documents' or 'XP documents.' The only
'shortcuts' are the 'Program Files.'

Remember I said that I installed all of my 'programs' under the Admin
account and then 'copied' them to the User account using that link that I
gave to you.

When I signed in 'User,' after installing under 'Admin,' I did not see the
'desktop' icons (I did not realize that I had to create desktop shortcuts)
even though the program files were 'already' there.

In other words, I did not need to 'copy' anything-I just had to create
shortcuts on my desktop so that the 'layout' would be the same as my Admin
account settings.
 
When I said that I had 'copied' everything from Admin to User, I was
referring to programs and icons.

I have the same 13 program shortcut icons on my desktop (On the screen not
the tray) in my 'Admin' and 'User' accounts. I did not realize that I had to
'create' shortcut icons on the desktop in my 'User' account. The 'programs'
were already there so I did not have to 'copy' anything.

However, only 8 (the same 8 in both accounts) of those 13 program shortcut
icons appear under C:\Docs and Settings\User\Desktop and C:\Docs and
Settings\Admin\Desktop while 'All Users' only shows 5. I am the only user on
this computer so I do not need 'All Users.'

What is the best course of action or is the 'layout' of both accounts the
way they should be?
 
Thanks for the assistance everyone, especially Jim :)

I decided to get a Windows XP book and brush up on the basics :)

One final question on this topic though: For 'daily use,' should I be signed
in as a User' with or without admin priviledges?
 
I am signed in as a 'Limited User.'

What happens if I am on a webpage and a program has an update? Do I have to
sign out of User and into 'Administrator' and then go back to that webpage?
 
As a 'Limited User,' the only options available are 'Change password,'
'Remove password,' 'Change picture,' and 'Set up .Net Passport.'

Where is the option to 'Change account type?'
 
Summer1 said:
As a 'Limited User,' the only options available are 'Change password,'
'Remove password,' 'Change picture,' and 'Set up .Net Passport.'

Where is the option to 'Change account type?'
Click to expand...

That option is not available to a Limited account.

That's the kind of thing you want to prevent a Limited user from doing.
You restrict their rights because you don't trust them to be mucking with
the system.

So you change account types from any Administrator-level account.

Note that an Administrator - level account is NOT the same as the actual
Administrator account - the account that's named "administrator".

While it's definitely not a good idea to use the real Administrator account
for daily use, as long as you know what you're doing there's no real
problem with giving your daily user account Administrator permissions.

HTH
-pk
 
That's what I do.
--
Jan Kuipers


Summer1 said:
I am signed in as a 'Limited User.'

What happens if I am on a webpage and a program has an update? Do I have to
sign out of User and into 'Administrator' and then go back to that webpage?
Click to expand...
 
I am signed in as a 'Limited User.'

For daily use, should I be signed in as a 'Limited User,' 'User with admin
priviledges,' or 'Admin?'

What happens if I am on a webpage and a program has an update (such as
Windows Automatic Update) ? Do I have to
sign out of 'User' and into 'Administrator' and then go back to that webpage
or can I accept the install through the User' with admin priviledges?
 
Summer1 said:
I am signed in as a 'Limited User.'
Why?

For daily use, should I be signed in as a 'Limited User,' 'User with admin
priviledges,' or 'Admin?'
Click to expand...

Use the actual "Administrator" account only when you absolutely have to.

Unless you're regularly going to risky sites, it's inconvenient to use
Limited permissions. I would normally give such accounts to client's
children, when they need to be prevented from making random system changes.

I use administrator-level accounts normally, because I regularly have to do
things that require those permissions. Some programs, fewer these days,
won't run properly or at all under Limited accounts. You will find out
when you try to run them.

I do not normally use the built-in Administrator account (that's the one
with the log-in name "Administrator") for anything other than initial user
account creation or emergency maintenance. You want to protect that
account as much as possible, and the first way to do that is to not use it
unless you *have* to.
What happens if I am on a webpage and a program has an update (such as
Windows Automatic Update) ?
Click to expand...

If you're in an account that doesn't have the permissions to install system
components, you won't be able to install them.
Do I have to
sign out of 'User' and into 'Administrator' and then go back to that
webpage
or can I accept the install through the User' with admin priviledges?
Click to expand...

I suggest you try it. You'll find out very quickly. A lot depends on
what the page or program requires, and that can't be predicted here.

HTH
-pk
 
You have not answered my question though:

For 'daily use,' is it safe to be signed in as 'User' with Admin priviledges?
 
Summer1 said:
You have not answered my question though:

For 'daily use,' is it safe to be signed in as 'User' with Admin
priviledges?
Click to expand...

It's been fairly comprehensively discussed; time for you to make a decision.

Based on what you've written so far, it sounds to me like the answer for you
is "it's probably not necessary".
 
You have not answered my question though:
For 'daily use,' is it safe to be signed in as 'User' with Admin
priviledges?
Click to expand...

In a general sense, no. From a best practices view, no. By running as
a limited user, viruses, trojans, worms, general malware will often be
restricted to infecting that user's account only. Since a "user"
doesn't have permissions to make changes outside his own area of
privileges, neither can malware. So the rest of the machine gains some
protection that way. Other users may not notice the intrusions and not
be affected.
By running as an admin, any malware then has the admin's permissions
to modify/change/add to/delete anything that admin has
rights/permissions for.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell, for a single-user machine.

A User may also have special permissions given to him. There are
"levels", such as Power User, most of an Admin's permissions but not
all, a backup admin, just like it sounds, can do backups others cannot,
and so on.
In other words yuo could if you want to assign SOME of the admin's
permissions to a User Account, but not all of them. It's better than a
full Admin account, but still each added permission opens another
possible area of damage.

IME it seems that more people run as Admins than do User accounts, for
whatever reason, usually the hassle of having to switch accounts to do
things. But don't forget, you usually can us the "Run As" and simply
choose your Admin account for that short period of time, then close that
user once you're done, and go back to work.

So it's best to run as a user. But not the most covenient. It's safer
to run as a user but more inconvenient. Perhaps setting yourself up as
a Power User might work for you instead of an Admin for day to day use.

See Help & Support for Power User for more info. Here's an
excerpt:

Power Users
Members of the Power Users group can create user accounts, but can
modify and delete only those accounts they create. They can create local
groups and remove users from local groups they have created. They can
also remove users from the Power Users, Users, and Guests groups.
They cannot modify the Administrators or Backup Operators groups, nor
can they take ownership of files, back up or restore directories, load
or unload device drivers, or manage the security and auditing logs.

HTH

Twayne
 
Twayne said:
Hi,

Learning something new, especially on a computer, is often a seemingly
complex though actually simple set of concepts which, once the structure
and semantics are worked out, turn into knowledge that will be useful for
a long, long time.
IMO Summer1 has done a great job of clear, concise postings, otherwise
actually known as clarification/verification, and Jim has shown an
outstanding incidence of responding in kind, and avoiding the "confusion
by facts" that a lot of people get bogged down in. This is the meeting of
two thinking minds and refreshing to see these days.
KUDOS to both of you, especially Jim for his willingness to answer the
questions without judgement or muddy water. Thanks to Summer1, the
answers to the questions he asked are going to be useful to many, many
people for some time to come via Google and other such repositories.

Best Regards,

Twayne
Click to expand...

It is a darn good thing you approve!!! Otherwise it would be worthless
information :-) You are the god of approval, right?
 
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