Hi Bud
What I should have said is, that only one user can physically use the the
computer at a time no matter how many accounts have been setup or are
currently logged on. Be aware that the accounts that are logged in are
using system resources, how much depends on the running process's opened.
The more users that are logged in at a time will slow down performance and
have a greater potential for crashing the system causing the other user to
potentially lose data that was not saved.
However in your situation when you talk about one of you kids doing work and
mom or you needs to jump in to handle something on her or your account for
the moment, that is what the quick Switch user function is for and IMO is ok
to do as long as your son saves his work before the Switch. The main thing
you need to enforce is when a user is finished with a session, is that they
save their work, close the programs they have running and logoff so the next
user can log on and have a session with out other programs running in other
accounts that could or will slow down the next user. As admin you can ask
for the cooperation of all users or silently enforce your policies as the
admin. (e.g. as admin you have the ability to throw up messages on a user
screen letting them know they should save, close all apps and log off,
should
they forget)
Based on what you have said I doubt you will have a problem caused by
letting mom jump in or others for taking care of quick task that don't
require full resources of the system.
Bud, the really neat thing is that as administrator, you over time will
learn how you can enforce what the other users can use (e.g.programs) and
when, by using the various features in Vista that allows the administrator
to dictate what goes on with out ever having to raise your voice.
You need one more Standard User account, and that's for yourself. Go to the
one admin account you have been using and create another admin account. Just
name it and set the Type to admin. Then go to the new admin account open it
let it configure, then give it a password that only you know and that others
will NOT be able to guess. Before you forget the password create a password
reset disk and keep it secure from others. Now go back to the original
admin account you have been operating out of and change it to the type
Standard User and this will be the account you will use in your daily work.
The reason you change that account to standard it keeps you from havinge to
move everything over to a new Standard User account and reminds you of
system changes that are about to occur that will affect your total
network. Because you know the admin password it will not be often that you
will ever need to log on to the admin account to get something done. Yes
there are times you will but not often. So now you should have 6 Standard
user accounts one of which is for you. One admin account, that I guess you
have appointed BudV as administrator. Now as a way to safe guard your
system create one more account of the Type Admin, again Password protect, do
a reset password disk and never use this account. This is your emergency
admin account in case your appointed administrator ever does something that
he should not have. You have 8 accounts. This also make it much simpler to
invoke
the hidden Administrator account should it ever be needed.
Maybe you have already put quotas on each user as to how much hard drive
space
they can eat up, if not you should. You as admin can do that through
Computer Properties.
Less worriers about the switch user thing as well.
Bud, the best way to look at User Account Control (UAC) is think of your
setup as 6 separate computers that are on a network that has an
administrator that even the administrator has safeguarded against
themselves. It lets all user have personal unique settings and preferences
..
And that other than the admin no one user can compromise the
entire network, only their own computer/account. If they should, all the
others still will be able to use their computers/accounts and get their work
done.
Actually this can be a great learning experience for all your family as to
how most things work and will get even tougher in an enterprise environment
when it comes to rules and following guidelines that are required to keep
those enterprises running, that your kids may face later in life.
Its nice to hear you got Photoshop behaving itself.
Bud, I wish you and your entire family good health and great prosperity.
H Brown
BudV said:
I'm running a 32 bit version of Vista Home Premium SP1.
I changed the virtual RAM specs to 3GB minimum and 5GB maximum. PSE2 now
loads well, and so far it seems to be behaving itself. Thank you all for
the help.
Mr. Brown, you said that "only one user can be logged on at a time." Did
you mean that literally, or was it more like "the PC can deal with only
one logged on user at a time." When I split this system up into one adult
(primary) user and four kid users, it was because I wanted to allow Mom to
interrupt Jacob's schoolwork to do a quick Google search without making
him log off, lose his train of thought, logging back on, then trying to
get back to where he was before the interruption. Ignoring for the moment
the resource penalties of staying logged on, this is legitimate, isn't it?
H Brown said:
Hi Bud
Thanks for posting back,
Even though Adobe reports that Photoshop Elements version 2.0 is not
compatible with Vista 32 or 64 bit, other user of Vista 32 bit have PE
2.0
running fine. They also say no problems when they installed the PE
program.
However like you they got the message to increase Windows Virtual Ram.
When
they did increase Virtual Ram Adobe Photoshop Elements Version 2.0 ran
well.
(snip) from
http://www.computing.net/answers/windows-vista/virtual-memory-issue-in-vista-/3242.html
Name: dsarosh
Date: November 3, 2008 at 02:39:35 Pacific
OS: Vista Ultimate 32 bit
CPU/Ram: C2D E6550, 4GB 667Mhz
Hi,
I have to use Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 on my comp since the newest
version 5.0 and 6.0 do not have the batch conversion features that are
required.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 installs fine on vista, but it doest not run
by
default. I get an error prompt that reads something like "there is not
enough virtual memory in the installation directory".
If I go to system properties>performance settings>advanced>change virtual
memory on my C drive to 5000 then the application runs perfectly.
Below are instructions from your Help and Support files on how to change
your
setting for your paging file/virtual memory. From the start menu click
on
and open
Help and Support, in the page that opens find the search box at top and
type
in
"Change the size of virtual memory" the search result in H&S will have a
link
that says "Change the size of virtual memory" click on that link and the
directions will
have a link so you can open *System*. You could do the same thing in the
search bar
above the start button after clicking start. Type the word System and
click
on it
on the start menu.
(Snip from Help and Support)
If you receive warnings that your virtual memory is low, you'll need to
increase the minimum size of your paging file. Windows sets the initial
minimum size of the paging file at the amount of random access memory
(RAM)
installed on your computer plus 300 megabytes (MB), and the maximum size
at
3 times the amount of RAM installed on your computer. If you see warnings
at
these recommended levels, then increase the minimum and maximum sizes.
1.. open System.
2.. In the left pane, click Advanced system settings. If you are
prompted
for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or
provide
confirmation.
3.. On the Advanced tab, under Performance, click Settings.
4.. Click the Advanced tab, and then, under Virtual memory, click
Change.
5.. Clear the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check
box.
6.. Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging
file you want to change.
7.. Click Custom size, type a new size in megabytes in the Initial size
(MB) or Maximum size (MB) box, click Set, and then click OK.
Increases in size usually don't require a restart, but if you decrease
the
size, you'll need to restart your computer for the changes to take
effect.
We recommend that you don't disable or delete the paging file.
Once PE 2.0 is working to you satisfaction, one thing that may enhance it
and
other operations, open Windows Defender click on tools then click on
_Software Explore_
Category: *Startup Programs* You see information of what programs are
starting when you
start Windows, Then click on _Show for all users_, then disable the
startup
programs you don't need running at startup.
I feel PE 2.0 was most likely when installed is already running in
compatibility mode for XP
and the Program Compatibility Assistant is saying if you want this
program
to run Change the size of virtual memory.
As far as your concerns as to how much of your installed memory (RAM) is
being used
at given times, don't be read the following article to better understand
how
the Vista handles
memory.
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000688.html
After you try this and run PE post back and let others know how it went
or
with other questions concerning this issue should you have them.
H Brown
BudV said:
Running under Vista Home Premium SP1.
I just loaded Adobe Photoshop Elements 2 (which had been running
previously under WinXP with 500MB RAM) into my new PC with 3GB RAM. It
would not run and requested that I increase Windows Virtual RAM!
Task Manager shows RAM with Total=2939MB, Cached=2080MB, and Free=20MB.
My first guess is that the problem has to do with having an
administrator
and five standard users, four of whom are minimum-user kids and should
be
removed (along with the kids). Am I right?
