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How Many User Accounts Do I need In XP Pro?

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4XXXX

Technical User
Jan 22, 2003
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As a single user I originally installed the Operating System with a single user account. I have now discovered this is not recommended because of the vulnerabilities of Trojans gaining access to the root directory. I have therefore created another administration account and changed the original one to a limited user account. Is this correct? I notice Outlook does not recognise the Back-up programme in the new account. Any idea why? There are numerous sets of unwanted user folders in the My Computer tree. Namely Administrators Folders, All Users Folders, Default Users Folders, My Original Account Folders, My New Account Folders. There are also two additional folders namely My Documents (Original User Account)and My Documents (New User Account. Are all these folder necessary and if not is it possible to delete some of them and how?
 
Leave the Folders alone, they do serve a purpose.

What you want to do is:

1. Make sure the Administrator account has a strong password.

2. Create a new Administrative-priviliged account (not Limited User) with a strong password. This will be your day-to-day account.

3. Install a good antivirus program. And keep it up to date.

4. Install a good firewall.
 
Thank you for your quick response.

I'm clear on all your advice except the following: -

What's an Administrative-privileged account? I appear to have a choice of either Administrator or Limited User accounts?

I have no personal use for a password, is this recommendation to prevent Trojans, hacking etc?

What is and how do I create a password reset disk?

Thanks again.



 
What's an Administrative-privileged account? I appear to have a choice of either Administrator or Limited User accounts?

A1: The first, Administrator.

"I have no personal use for a password, is this recommendation to prevent Trojans, hacking etc?"

A2: It is an overall security recommendation, including to prevent Administrator access remotely. You can leave your user account password free, or enable a password and let the machine Auto logon. TweakUI makes this painless:
"What is and how do I create a password reset disk?"

A3:
 
Thanks for responding again.

I am a little confused however about the creation of an Administrators Account for everyday use, this concern began when I read this article: -
As you can see the author recommends a separate limited user account for everyday use. Have I misunderstood something or is this a case of differing expert advice?
 
From what I understand, your normal day to day user account has Administrator privileges because you may want to install programmes without logging in as the Administrator in order to install.

If you don't install programmes all the time, then a limited user account will do if you can run the programmes with no problems.

The site which you mentioned, the author recommend limited user accounts is because as bcastner has mentioned, to prevent Trojan horses, etc, from using your Administrator privileges to hack in remotely.

Fight?
[lightsaber]
What fight? [shocked]
 
Thanks for that NiteLink.
 
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