Island said:
I am going to allow another person to use my pc. I do not want them to be
able to acess my files and my document or msn or windows live accounts.
How do I block this info from the new user. Using windows xp.
You forgot to tell us whether you have XP Home, Pro, or Media Center
Edition. I recently wrote a short article for my clients about this issue.
Take the bits that are applicable to you:
*****
This is the time of year when it is common to have holiday guests visiting.
If you are a hospitable sort and want to let them use your computer but are
concerned about security, here are a few tips. They are applicable to both
XP and Vista.
a. Do not use the Guest account you see in the User Accounts applet in
Control Panel. The Guest account is a special system account, not one meant
for when you are feeling hospitable. It is disabled by default in Windows
XP, Vista, Linux, Unix, and OS X for a reason. If you want the technical
explanation:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb418978(TechNet.10).aspx
b. Instead, create a new user account called "Visitor" or "my precious
mother-in-law" or the like. In XP, make this user a Limited Account. In
Vista, make this user a Standard account.
c. If you are concerned about the visitor being able to see your personal
files (maybe Grandma shouldn't see your collection of "playful pictures"),
you can make your My Documents private in XP.
HOW TO: Set the My Documents Folder as "Private" in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/298399
In Vista, only an administrative account can see inside your Documents
folder.
d. Some people will get the bright idea to encrypt the files. Encryption is
not available natively in XP Home and Vista Home Basic/Premium but it is in
XP Pro and Vista Business/Ultimate. If you decide to do this, read about
encryption and really understand what you are doing. I can't tell you the
number of newsgroup posts I've seen over the years where people are wailing
about not being able to get their encrypted files back because they didn't
take the necessary precautions.
e. You could move any "sensitive" files to a USB thumb drive or an external
hard drive and hide that device in a Really Good Place.
*****
In addition to the above, if you have XP Pro/MCE you can also set very
fine-grained permissions. Only allow access to your files by you, the
Administrator, and Administrators. The new Visitor account will be denied
access.
Malke
