Privacy for Multiple Admin Accounts

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brandy
  • Start date Start date
B

Brandy

I have 4 profiles on my PC. 3 are Admin, and nothing is
private. Since Admin users have free rein of all files,
all options to lock files is disabled. These three
accounts MUST remain Admin, but there is also a need for
privacy. Does anyone know how to do this? Every option I
have come across is disabled.
 
You can work with security rights on the folders you wish to protect, I used
the process below successfully.

--Log in to the computer as the "Administrator"
--Navigate to the folder you wish to make private.
--R Click and press properties, Click the Security tab. Then the Advanced
tab. You should be looking at the Permissions tab of "Advanced Security
Settings for <foldername>".
--Remove the check from "Inherit permissions.....". When you do, you will
be asked if you want to copy, remove, or cancel security setting changes.
--Choose Remove, then click Apply. You will be warned that you are denying
all access to everyone, choose to continue. Then click Close on the
"Advanced Security..." box.

+++++DO NOT CLOSE THE <foldername> Properties box!!+++++

--Now click add to add the computer Administrator (NOT Administrators group)
and the specific user you wish to have access to the folder. Grant them
both Full Control.
--Now you can Apply the changes.
--It is very important that you give the administrator account full access
to the folder to allow changes to security in the future.

BE very careful with this as you could lock yourself out of files. Use the
"Effective Permissions" tab under the Advanced security properties to see
just who has what rights to the folder BEFORE you close the folder
properties box.

Bob Michon
Associate Expert
 
Nix this idea unless you can demote the other users from the Admins group
(maybe power users will work?). Unfortunately they can simply take
ownership of the folder and change it to Administrators and gain access
anyway.

Sorry for the false hope.

Bob Michon
Associate Expert
 
Specific folders can be made private but understand, this will only apply to
folders in your user profile as follows:

Note: If you have XP Pro, in Windows Explorer, go Tools, select Folder
Options, go to the View tab, scroll to the bottom of the list and be sure
"Use Simple File Sharing is unchecked. Unfortunately, XP Home using NTFS is
essentially hard wired for "Simple File Sharing" at system level.

However, you can set XP Home permissions in Safe Mode. Reboot, and start
hitting F8, a menu should eventually appear and one of the
options is Safe Mode. Select it. Note, it will ask for the administrator's
password. This is not your administrator account, rather it is the
machine's administrator account for which users are asked to create a
password during setup.

If you created no such password, when requested, leave blank and press
enter.

Open Explorer, go to Tools and Folder Options, on the view tab, scroll to
the bottom of the list, if it shows "Enable Simple File Sharing" deselect it
and click apply and ok. If it shows nothing or won't let you make a change,
move on to the next step.

From Help and Support on the Start Menu-

To make your folders private

Open My Computer.

Double-click the drive where Windows is installed (usually drive (C:),
unless you have more than one drive on your computer).
If the contents of the drive are hidden, under System Tasks, click Show the
contents of this drive.
Double-click the Documents and Settings folder.
Double-click your user folder.
Right-click any folder in your user profile, and then click Properties.
On the Sharing tab, select the Make this folder private so that only I have
access to it check box.
 
Back
Top