Adminstrator, password protected files

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Guest

I don't wish to waste anyone's time, but I haven't seen the answer I'm
looking for. My gilrfriends son messed up her Media Center computer and his
father used F10 instead of system restore, but the files are still there. To
prevent this from occurring again, my girlfriend asked me to password protect
the computer. I set myself up as the adminstrator, since I build computers
and have the most knowledge, but have only been using XP for the past 6
months. I've read that the account is now hidden and know how to access it
from safe mode. When I set it up, it asked me if I wanted to protect the
files and folders, such as My Documents. Stupid me did this. Now even though
I have set my girlfriend up with an adminstator account, I can't find a way
to share or allow her to access those files, and all her pics are there. I
also can't delete the admistrator account I made, even though it says that
can be done through her adminstrator account, but there is no option there. I
want to do two things. I want to unprotect the files and folders I made
private, and I want to delete the adminstrator account I made. F10 restore or
system restore won't even do this. Please give me the easiest way to do these
things. Thanks.
 
XP PRO: In Windows Explorer, go to Tools, Folder Options, View and uncheck Use Simple File Sharing. Now, when you right click on a drive, folder or file (on an NTFS partition) and select Properties, you'll see a Security tab. Here you can assign or deny permissions based on user name or user group membership.

XP Home: By default, you can only make files and folders under My Documents "private". This is done by right clicking a folder or file and selecting Properties, Sharing. To change the permissions on these, or other folders, you need to boot the computer to Safe Mode and log in on the built in Administrator account. In this mode, you'll see the Security tab in Properties, and you can assign permissions based on user name or group membership.

HOW TO: Set, View, Change, or Remove File and Folder Permissions in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308418

HOW TO: Set, View, Change, or Remove Special Permissions for Files and Folders
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;308419

HOW TO: Disable Simplified Sharing and Password-Protect a Shared Folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;307874
 
This does not help me. I've unchecked simple file sharing. I had also
restored the computer and this time as admisistrator I did not check the box
to protect the files and folders in my documents. There are no other user
sccounts. Giving groups persmission is very confusing when there are no
groups. I have no user accounts at this time, just the administrtor. I can
find some of the document folders now, but where are the pictures? I can't
find the folders with the pictures that were protected. Let's say I named the
folder Ted's pictures. Now Ted's pictures are no where to be found, so I
can't enable sharing for it. At this point, since this is more complicated
than it should have been, I want to remove the whole adminstator thing period
and put the files back just the way they were before I told it to protect
them the first time I did this.
 
I have taken ownership of my documents folder, it doesn't matter. First, I've
asked two questions that you haven't answered. I want to get rid of the whole
aministrator and go back to the way it was before.You haven't told me if I
can do this,if not why, and how to do this. The second unanswered question is
where did the pictures in my documents go to. I can't take possesion of a
file or change it's security if the file is no longer where it was or has
some different secret name, in any case, I can't find the files that were
there before I told it to protect them.

Here are the different names when I boot in safe mode:
Administrator (Your-name of computer\Adminstrator)
Administrators (Your-name of computer\Adminstrators)
Creator Owner
System
Users (Your-name of computer\Users
 
First, no, you can't get rid of the built in Administrator account. Its there for a reason.

The Administrator is an account. System is a user account that is used by the operating system. Creator/Owner is a designation for the user account that created a specific file and/or has ownership of it. Users and Administrators are groups.

You need to read the instructions for taking ownership and apply it to the entire C: drive, and its contents, while you are logged on to the Administrator account. This will give you full control over anything and eveyrthing on the drive. If the files are there, you'll be able to find and access them.
 
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