How many use users ....

[jona]

Hi all,

I'll bet that at the very least half of Win2K or XP users have
no need to set their system up for multiple same machine users.

When I switch the computer on, I'm the user/administrator/guest/
local user/all users/default user/whatever user, and have no need
for all those options and/or folders sitting in c:\documents and settings.
If there were an option to remove this feature I'm sure XP would run
quicker, possibly smoother and definately simpler, occupying much
less HDD space. I have three machines here at home, each one with
it's own single 'user' and networked with eachother.

Let it be known that I'm not complaining. Having switched from
W98SE to XP has been a move to a better OS, but M$ made
many assumptions which are superfluous to most users (IMHO).

If it's possible to cleanly remove the 'user' function from XP, I'd
be obliged for tips or ideas.

Cheers
Jona

 

[David]

Hi all,

I'll bet that at the very least half of Win2K or XP users have
no need to set their system up for multiple same machine users.

When I switch the computer on, I'm the user/administrator/guest/
local user/all users/default user/whatever user, and have no need
for all those options and/or folders sitting in c:\documents and settings.

You may not have need for them. But, Windows does. Though I'm not
sure why on some of them. Such as, "Guest" Account. I have it disabled
and don't see why Windows won't let me delete it.


David

 

[jona]

settings.

You may not have need for them. But, Windows does. Though I'm not
sure why on some of them. Such as, "Guest" Account. I have it disabled
and don't see why Windows won't let me delete it.
David

That's the kind of reply I feared I'd get.
Thanks just the same.
Cheers
Jona.

 

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

.... because Windows still needs it for simple network file sharing
authentication and permissions.

 

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

I've gotten used to the new Windows Explorer view with My Documents on
the top and "Other User's Documents" and such below. XP really wants you
to keep your documents in My Documents and when I do, it works well.

I use at least three accounts on my XP systems:

1) Administrator, which doesn't appear on Welcome Screen, but does have
a password, is my emergency admin account and the account I use for safe
mode and Recovery Console

2) sysadmin is my day-to-day admin account

3) kwe is my day-to-day limited account for web browsing and email

If you decide not to bother with using limited accounts and if your
system came with an "owner" account, you might be happy just with
"Administrator" and "Owner" (possibly renamed on the Welcome Screen to
your name).

You need at least two admin accounts in case something nasty happens to
your system and locks out your owner account. You would make the secret
handshake and logon to Administrator to fix it.

Default User and All Users are not real accounts, they are profiles that
XP uses to create new accounts and to share files and shortcuts among
all user accounts. Guest can be disabled.

Of course, you don't appreciate the security features of XP now, but if
you ever wanted to add another user, you'd appreciate having a real
logon and file privacy. Those security features are also important to
keeping your system safe from Internet drive-by downloads and such.

 

[jona]

You can't remove the accounts feature, but you can at least hide them from
view:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;282866

Thanks, but I've already got that implemented. It's the countless folders
under Documents and Settings for locating various stuff, in or out of
view from phantom 'users', that makes me wonder exactly how much
unused yet existing programming supports the sorting of all the
non-existent users and their non-existent information into very much
existing OS categories and folders, carefully tailored to accommodate
just about every not-to-be scenario created by not-to-become other
users.
</rant>
My apologies, and thanks again for the pointer.

 

[jona]

Hi all,

I'll bet that at the very least half of Win2K or XP users have
no need to set their system up for multiple same machine users.
......[snipped]......
If it's possible to cleanly remove the 'user' function from XP, I'd
be obliged for tips or ideas.

I've gotten used to the new Windows Explorer view with My Documents on
the top and "Other User's Documents" and such below. XP really wants you
to keep your documents in My Documents and when I do, it works well.

I use at least three accounts on my XP systems:

1) Administrator, which doesn't appear on Welcome Screen, but does have
a password, is my emergency admin account and the account I use for safe
mode and Recovery Console

2) sysadmin is my day-to-day admin account

3) kwe is my day-to-day limited account for web browsing and email

If you decide not to bother with using limited accounts and if your
system came with an "owner" account, you might be happy just with
"Administrator" and "Owner" (possibly renamed on the Welcome Screen to
your name).

You need at least two admin accounts in case something nasty happens to
your system and locks out your owner account. You would make the secret
handshake and logon to Administrator to fix it.

Default User and All Users are not real accounts, they are profiles that
XP uses to create new accounts and to share files and shortcuts among
all user accounts. Guest can be disabled.

Of course, you don't appreciate the security features of XP now, but if
you ever wanted to add another user, you'd appreciate having a real
logon and file privacy. Those security features are also important to
keeping your system safe from Internet drive-by downloads and such.

For starters, thanks for what is probably good advice on how best to use
the account hierarchy as a single user. Currently I auto log on as Admin
and have everything else disabled. I'll bet I'm gonna regret that some day.
Cheers.

 

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

Of course the decision is up to you, but you could create another admin
account and another temporary admin account and use the temporary admin
account to copy over the Administrator to your new admin account and
switch off to that one, leaving Administrator for emergencies. Be sure
to logon to each of your new accounts before you do the copying.

You might even switch the temporary admin account to a limited account
and experiment with using that one to browse and read email. You can use
your second admin account to copy Administrator over this account.

Be sure to create an account using the name or string that you want to
appear in the user profile path. I use "kwe" for example. Then you can
rename your account to whatever you want to appear on the Welcome
Screen.

The User Profile copy tool is on the System control panel. Surprised you
hadn't found it yet.

--
Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows

Hi all,

I'll bet that at the very least half of Win2K or XP users have
no need to set their system up for multiple same machine users.
......[snipped]......
If it's possible to cleanly remove the 'user' function from XP, I'd
be obliged for tips or ideas.

I've gotten used to the new Windows Explorer view with My Documents on
the top and "Other User's Documents" and such below. XP really wants you
to keep your documents in My Documents and when I do, it works well.

I use at least three accounts on my XP systems:

1) Administrator, which doesn't appear on Welcome Screen, but does have
a password, is my emergency admin account and the account I use for safe
mode and Recovery Console

2) sysadmin is my day-to-day admin account

3) kwe is my day-to-day limited account for web browsing and email

If you decide not to bother with using limited accounts and if your
system came with an "owner" account, you might be happy just with
"Administrator" and "Owner" (possibly renamed on the Welcome Screen to
your name).

You need at least two admin accounts in case something nasty happens to
your system and locks out your owner account. You would make the secret
handshake and logon to Administrator to fix it.

Default User and All Users are not real accounts, they are profiles that
XP uses to create new accounts and to share files and shortcuts among
all user accounts. Guest can be disabled.

Of course, you don't appreciate the security features of XP now, but if
you ever wanted to add another user, you'd appreciate having a real
logon and file privacy. Those security features are also important to
keeping your system safe from Internet drive-by downloads and such.

For starters, thanks for what is probably good advice on how best to use
the account hierarchy as a single user. Currently I auto log on as Admin
and have everything else disabled. I'll bet I'm gonna regret that some day.
Cheers.