restrictions on administrtor account

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Guest

Hi,
i have a windows xp home edition sp2, which i use at home on my
thinkpad. I am the administrator on this notebook pc. My account has is named
after my name & user account on control panel describles my account as
computer administrator & password protected. But i am unable to view the
other users on this pc other than the ones that i created. For example ,AFAIK
there must be account named administrator which is created by default when
the windows is installed. A web-page at microsoft support site says that in
order to change user account properties, to right click on My computer ->
manage. On left pane there will be local users & group. But when i did that i
don't see any field named local users & group. What is this, i am the
administrator in this pc i don't have control over my pc. I would like to
enable the default administrator account & have it password protected.

thank you,

with regards,
murali
 
murali said:
Hi,
i have a windows xp home edition sp2, which i use
at home on my thinkpad. I am the administrator on this
notebook pc. My account has is named after my name & user
account on control panel describles my account as computer
administrator & password protected. But i am unable to view
the other users on this pc other than the ones that i
created. For example ,AFAIK there must be account named
administrator which is created by default when the windows
is installed. A web-page at microsoft support site says that
in order to change user account properties, to right click
on My computer -> manage. On left pane there will be local
users & group. But when i did that i don't see any field
named local users & group. What is this, i am the
administrator in this pc i don't have control over my pc. I
would like to enable the default administrator account &
have it password protected.

thank you,

with regards,
murali
Click to expand...

The issues you're having are due to the fact that you have the
Home Edition of XP instead of the Professional Edition.

The reference in that Microsoft article is for XP Professional
Edition. The Local Users and Groups section of Computer
Management is not available in Windows XP Home Edition.

While both versions of XP have a built-in Administrator
account,
you have to boot into Safe Mode in order to access that account
if
you have XP Home Edition. Keep in mind that the Administrator
account should be used only in an emergency.

Try the following:
Restart your computer.
Start hitting the F8 key as soon as you see anything displayed
on your laptop's display.
Keep hitting the F8 key until you see the Windows Advanced
Options Menu.
Using the up and down arrow keys, select Safe Mode.
Hit the Enter key.
Note: You may have to hold down the shift key while Windows is
starting in order to see the Welcome Screen. If the computer
starts in Safe Mode but logs directly into your user account,
go to Start -> Log off and log off from your account. This
should get you to the Welcome Screen.
Once you see the Welcome Screen, click on the icon for the
Administrator account.

If all you want to do is add a password to the Administrator
account, you can do the following in normal mode:
Make sure you're logged on with an account that's a computer
administrator.
Go to Start -> Run.
Copy and paste the following into the Open box

control userpasswords2

Hit OK.
In User Accounts, make sure there's a check mark in the box
next to "Users must enter a password to use this computer".
Click on Administrator in the box below that line.
Once you've highlighted the Administrator account, hit the
"Reset password" button.
Enter the password you want to assign to this account twice and
click OK.
Finally, click on the Cancel button.
Make sure you click the Cancel button. If you click on OK or
Apply you'll disable automatic logging on of your account if
that's how your system is setup.
Once you've completed this procedure, restart into Safe Mode.
You should be asked for a password in order to log on with the
Administrator account.

Good luck

Nepatsfan
 
Nepatsfan said:
The issues you're having are due to the fact that you have the
Home Edition of XP instead of the Professional Edition.

The reference in that Microsoft article is for XP Professional
Edition. The Local Users and Groups section of Computer
Management is not available in Windows XP Home Edition.

While both versions of XP have a built-in Administrator
account,
you have to boot into Safe Mode in order to access that account
if
you have XP Home Edition. Keep in mind that the Administrator
account should be used only in an emergency.

Try the following:
Restart your computer.
Start hitting the F8 key as soon as you see anything displayed
on your laptop's display.
Keep hitting the F8 key until you see the Windows Advanced
Options Menu.
Using the up and down arrow keys, select Safe Mode.
Hit the Enter key.
Note: You may have to hold down the shift key while Windows is
starting in order to see the Welcome Screen. If the computer
starts in Safe Mode but logs directly into your user account,
go to Start -> Log off and log off from your account. This
should get you to the Welcome Screen.
Once you see the Welcome Screen, click on the icon for the
Administrator account.

If all you want to do is add a password to the Administrator
account, you can do the following in normal mode:
Make sure you're logged on with an account that's a computer
administrator.
Go to Start -> Run.
Copy and paste the following into the Open box

control userpasswords2

Hit OK.
In User Accounts, make sure there's a check mark in the box
next to "Users must enter a password to use this computer".
Click on Administrator in the box below that line.
Once you've highlighted the Administrator account, hit the
"Reset password" button.
Enter the password you want to assign to this account twice and
click OK.
Finally, click on the Cancel button.
Make sure you click the Cancel button. If you click on OK or
Apply you'll disable automatic logging on of your account if
that's how your system is setup.
Once you've completed this procedure, restart into Safe Mode.
You should be asked for a password in order to log on with the
Administrator account.

Good luck

Nepatsfan
Click to expand...

Hi,

Thanks for the nice reply. It was quite successfull. But as you were saying
administrator(default) can only be used in safe mode. But AFAIK safe mode has
lot of restriction since it loads only minimum of drivers & s/w. I want to
share this pc with my brother. I want a administrator account, (apart from
this one), that does'nt create require minimum disk space (disk space is a
premium in this pc). Like it doesn't create a separate My document folder,
etc. I want this account to be used my brother.

thanks,

with regards,
murali
 
murali said:
Hi,

Thanks for the nice reply. It was quite successfull. But as
you were saying administrator(default) can only be used in
safe mode. But AFAIK safe mode has lot of restriction since
it loads only minimum of drivers & s/w. I want to share this
pc with my brother. I want a administrator account, (apart
from this one), that does'nt create require minimum disk
space (disk space is a premium in this pc). Like it doesn't
create a separate My document folder, etc. I want this
account to be used my brother.

thanks,

with regards,
murali
Click to expand...

Creating a new user account for your brother will add a folder
for his account to C:\Documents and Settings. There's no way of
getting around that. At first, the folder is usually less than
10 MB, not that big a deal. It's, as you know, when he starts
creating and saving files that his hard disk usage will
increase.

If your brother's account was a limited account, you could use
Disk Quotas to limit the amount of space that was available to
him. Since you want him to be a computer administrator, this
option would not be available. You cannot restrict the amount
of hard drive space that is available to a member of the
administrators group.

There really aren't a whole lot of options available to deal
with a lack of hard drive space. The best one is to add a
second hard drive to your system and relocate each user's My
Documents folder to that drive. Here's an article that outlines
the procedure:

How to Change the Default Location of the My Documents Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310147

Here are some other simple ways to free up hard drive space:

1. Reduce the amount of disk space allocated to System Restore.
Lowering the amount from the default 12% can save considerable
space. Leaving a gigabyte or less for System Restore usually
means you'll have a months worth of restore points.

2. Delete the uninstall files created by Windows Update.
You'll find a hidden folder in C:\Windows for each update. If
you feel that you won't need to uninstall the update, you can
delete the folder. You'll recognize the folders because they'll
be named like this: $NtUninstallKBXXXXXX$ where the X's
represent a Microsoft Knowledge Base article about the update.
If you installed Service Pack 2 on your computer and you don't
plan on removing it, you can delete the
$NtServicePackUninstall$ folder. Don't delete the $hf_mig$
folder. Windows need this folder.

3. Reduce the amount of disk space allocated to the Temporary
Internet Files folder. You can lower this setting to less than
100 MB.

Whatever you do, don't delete any of the folders that Windows
has created and placed in C:\Documents and Settings. Folders
such as All Users, Default User and Administrator are there for
a good reason. Let them be.

Good luck

Nepatsfan
 
:

Good luck
Creating a new user account for your brother will add a folder
for his account to C:\Documents and Settings. There's no way of
getting around that. At first, the folder is usually less than
10 MB, not that big a deal. It's, as you know, when he starts
creating and saving files that his hard disk usage will
increase.

If your brother's account was a limited account, you could use
Disk Quotas to limit the amount of space that was available to
him. Since you want him to be a computer administrator, this
option would not be available. You cannot restrict the amount
of hard drive space that is available to a member of the
administrators group.

There really aren't a whole lot of options available to deal
with a lack of hard drive space. The best one is to add a
second hard drive to your system and relocate each user's My
Documents folder to that drive. Here's an article that outlines
the procedure:

How to Change the Default Location of the My Documents Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310147

Here are some other simple ways to free up hard drive space:

1. Reduce the amount of disk space allocated to System Restore.
Lowering the amount from the default 12% can save considerable
space. Leaving a gigabyte or less for System Restore usually
means you'll have a months worth of restore points.

2. Delete the uninstall files created by Windows Update.
You'll find a hidden folder in C:\Windows for each update. If
you feel that you won't need to uninstall the update, you can
delete the folder. You'll recognize the folders because they'll
be named like this: $NtUninstallKBXXXXXX$ where the X's
represent a Microsoft Knowledge Base article about the update.
If you installed Service Pack 2 on your computer and you don't
plan on removing it, you can delete the
$NtServicePackUninstall$ folder. Don't delete the $hf_mig$
folder. Windows need this folder.

3. Reduce the amount of disk space allocated to the Temporary
Internet Files folder. You can lower this setting to less than
100 MB.

Whatever you do, don't delete any of the folders that Windows
has created and placed in C:\Documents and Settings. Folders
such as All Users, Default User and Administrator are there for
a good reason. Let them be.

Good luck

Nepatsfan
Click to expand...
Hi,

In my bid to save some presious hard drive space, I have already deleted
some of the folders like My pictures, My music, & unistalled windows movie
maker, outlook express, etc, since i don't use them. Could this cause
problems? Now i have windows movie maker icon in my start menu ass box with
blue strip at the top. I think this means that exe file of movie maker is
damaged or removed but its not removed from start menu.
 
murali said:
:

Good luck
Hi,

In my bid to save some presious hard drive space, I have
already deleted some of the folders like My pictures, My
music, & unistalled windows movie maker, outlook express,
etc, since i don't use them. Could this cause problems?
Now i have windows movie maker icon in my start menu ass box
with blue strip at the top. I think this means that exe file
of movie maker is damaged or removed but its not removed
from start menu.
Click to expand...

Exactly how did you uninstall Outlook Express and Windows Movie
Maker?

Nepatsfan
 
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