Re: Limited account in WinXP

From: xpyttl (xpyttl_NOSPAM_at_earthling.net)
Date: 05/16/05 

Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 15:00:36 -0400

"speeder" <no.spam@invalid.com> wrote in message
news:v0fh81pi3ub02noeke4jt5q8n5lveu5m1b@4ax.com...
> I´ve been thinking about creating a limited account in WinXP as
> another layer of security. An administrator level account would exist
> only for installing new stuff. Is this a valid idea as a threat
> deterrent?

It's not only valid, running applications, especially browsing, as
administrator is just plain stupid.

However, as others have pointed out, Windows is not nearly as competent in
this area as Linux.

There are a few programs (really not very many) that won't run properly
except as administrator. In a very few cases, this actually makes sense.
In most cases, though, it is simply incompetence.

Most of the time, as someone else pointed out, the problem is with
protections on the files, so often the program can be fixed by going in and
correcting those protections. This is a piece of cake in Win XP Pro, but
it's a bit challenging in XP Home. You still want to be as stingy as
possible with the file protections and still allow things to work. Open the
files up too much and you have opened yourself up to exactly the kinds of
problems you are trying to prevent.

In general, you want Windows and your personal files on an NTFS partition,
and if your disk is of any size at all, XP does this by default. However,
often you can work around some of the issues with errant programs by
installing them on a FAT partition. In any case, once you have a limited
user, it's handy to have at least one FAT partition anyway, especially on XP
Home. I keep a few FAT16 partitions for specific functions.

..

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