New Vista user - could use some help.

  • Thread starter Thread starter John O'Boyle
  • Start date Start date
J

John O'Boyle

I recently purchased a new Gateway notebook for my wife. It arrived
with Vista Home Premium installed. My first thought was to wipe the
drive and install Windows XP Professional. However, after discovering
that several of the important drivers were unavailable for Windows XP, I
decided to bite the bullet and live with Vista.

I did what I could to make the Vista installation appear as much like
Windows XP as possible. Every time there was a "classic" option, I took
it. I became extremely frustrated with, what I think is, User Account
Control, in that I couldn't seem to do much of anything without
explicitly giving the system permission.

In my frustration, I added one more of the tweaks found at the link
below. And no, I'm not sure which ones I applied and which ones I
didn't. I find myself in a position now where I don't believe there's
an administrator account at all. My wife's account, which really should
be also an administrator account, shows as "standard". When I go to try
and change it to administrator, nothing happens, and the change doesn't
take.

Any help anyone can offer, would be gratefully appreciated. Some
software now will not installed all because it needs administrator
privileges to do so.

Thanks for your time.

John O'Boyle





http://www.askvg.com/how-to-tweak-u...ons-in-windows-vista-home-basic-home-premium/
 
John said:
I recently purchased a new Gateway notebook for my wife. It arrived
with Vista Home Premium installed. My first thought was to wipe the
drive and install Windows XP Professional. However, after discovering
that several of the important drivers were unavailable for Windows XP, I
decided to bite the bullet and live with Vista.

I did what I could to make the Vista installation appear as much like
Windows XP as possible. Every time there was a "classic" option, I took
it. I became extremely frustrated with, what I think is, User Account
Control, in that I couldn't seem to do much of anything without
explicitly giving the system permission.

In my frustration, I added one more of the tweaks found at the link
below. And no, I'm not sure which ones I applied and which ones I
didn't. I find myself in a position now where I don't believe there's
an administrator account at all. My wife's account, which really should
be also an administrator account, shows as "standard". When I go to try
and change it to administrator, nothing happens, and the change doesn't
take.
Click to expand...

Restore your wife's computer to factory condition with whatever method
Gateway provided. Then either take the machine to a local tech who knows
what s/he is doing or stop tinkering. You are losing a lot of functionality
by trying to make Vista into something it is not. Buying a good beginner's
Vista book will also be a good idea. I highly recommend "Vista: The Missing
Manual" by David Pogue. I'm not saying this to hurt your feelings, but
you're just making things far more difficult and frustrating than they need
to be.

Your wife's user account should be a Standard user account. Here is the
general information about setting up user accounts in Vista:

You absolutely do not want to have only one user account. Like XP and all
other modern operating systems, Vista is a multi-user operating system with
built-in system accounts such as Administrator, Default, All Users, and
Guest. These accounts should be left alone as they are part of the
operating system structure.

You particularly don't want only one user account with administrative
privileges on Vista because the built-in Administrator account (normally
only used in emergencies) is disabled by default. If you're running as
Administrator for your daily work and that account gets corrupted, things
will be Difficult. It isn't impossible to activate the built-in
Administrator to rescue things, but it will require third-party tools and
working outside the operating system.

The user account that is for your daily work should be a Standard user, with
the extra administrative user (call it something like "CompAdmin" or "Tech"
or the like) only there for elevation purposes. After you create
"CompAdmin", log into it and change your regular user account to Standard.
Then log back into your regular account.

If you want to go directly to the Desktop and skip the Welcome Screen with
the icons of user accounts, you can do this the same way as in XP:

Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm

Malke
 
Malke said:
Restore your wife's computer to factory condition with whatever method
Gateway provided. Then either take the machine to a local tech who knows
what s/he is doing or stop tinkering. You are losing a lot of functionality
by trying to make Vista into something it is not. Buying a good beginner's
Vista book will also be a good idea. I highly recommend "Vista: The Missing
Manual" by David Pogue. I'm not saying this to hurt your feelings, but
you're just making things far more difficult and frustrating than they need
to be.

Your wife's user account should be a Standard user account. Here is the
general information about setting up user accounts in Vista:

You absolutely do not want to have only one user account. Like XP and all
other modern operating systems, Vista is a multi-user operating system with
built-in system accounts such as Administrator, Default, All Users, and
Guest. These accounts should be left alone as they are part of the
operating system structure.

You particularly don't want only one user account with administrative
privileges on Vista because the built-in Administrator account (normally
only used in emergencies) is disabled by default. If you're running as
Administrator for your daily work and that account gets corrupted, things
will be Difficult. It isn't impossible to activate the built-in
Administrator to rescue things, but it will require third-party tools and
working outside the operating system.

The user account that is for your daily work should be a Standard user, with
the extra administrative user (call it something like "CompAdmin" or "Tech"
or the like) only there for elevation purposes. After you create
"CompAdmin", log into it and change your regular user account to Standard.
Then log back into your regular account.

If you want to go directly to the Desktop and skip the Welcome Screen with
the icons of user accounts, you can do this the same way as in XP:

Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm

Malke
Click to expand...


Perhaps I might be able to hear form someone with a less narrow minded
viewpoint. I'm far from a novice and have a fairly grounded idea of
what I want!

JLOB
 
Malke's advice is spot-on!

Your statement: "My first thought was to wipe the
drive and install Windows XP Professional" does not
make any logical sense. The Gateway computer was designed to
run Windows Vista (which is excellent BTW) and not an older O/S.
 
No-one here knows just what you have done to it.
The only way to put it back to what it was like is to reinstall to factory
standards.

Or, leave it how it is, and right-click on the setup/.exes> run as Admin to
install Programs, and see if that works.
 
Not to rub salt in the wounds, you made the classic mistake of trying to
turn your new o/s into a winxp clone, something you are perhaps more
comfortable with.
Even you cannot remember what you did with your tweaks.
I don't pretend to know all about Vista or winxp, but whatever you thinks
one o/s is discontinued, and it appears the other will shortly follow with
win7 being introduced
Undoubtedly Malke's advice to resotore to factory condition & start over is
sound, no matter what pride says
 
John O'Boyle said:
Perhaps I might be able to hear form someone with a less narrow minded
viewpoint. I'm far from a novice and have a fairly grounded idea of
what I want!
Click to expand...

That "narrow minded" person is one of the most knowledgeable, patient
and helpful people in these groups.

You're an insufferable twit.
 
Boot into safe mode. I'm not sure but I think that is same as administrator.
At any rate you can do things in there you can't do with a regular account.
Also when trying to install software right click on file and choose run as
administrator. I hope this helps.

Computer Wiz Without A Clue
 
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