Re: user accounts

Hi Alex,

I have a multi user account pc running XP professional SP2. All accts have
administrator status but my personal account is the only one password
protected. On startup instead of the welcome screen displaying all user
accts, the computer goes straight to my acct. To get back to welcome
screen I
have to log out or switch user. How do i fix as i have folders i want to
keep
private?

Start with taking away administrator rights for all user accounts, except
for one, which has a password and which you don't use for daily use.
If users have administrator rights, they can take ownership of any file and
therefor always access your files. It is also _not_ a good idea to run as
administrator: Typically, it's unnecessary and it will make your computer
much more vulnerable to spyware, addware, viruses, troyans, ...

Then, check that the file system in use is NTFS. You can do this by
right-clicking on the drive letter in Windows Explorer, and selecting
'Properties'. In the properties window, you should see 'File System: NTFS'.
If your file system is FAT or FAT32, convert it to NTFS using the command
line tool 'convert.exe'.

Next, go to the folder that you want to keep private, right-click the
folder, and select properties. Go to the Security tab, click 'Advanced'; you
should see a new dialog box; go to the Owner tab, select your username under
'change owner to:' and click OK. This will make you the owner of the
folder.

Then, make sure in the Security tab of the folder properties that only
SYSTEM, Administrators and your user account have Full Control. Make sure
that the other users are not in the list. It might be that the other users
are in the list, because they inherit rights from parent folders to which
they do have access. In that case, you will have to click the Advanced
button again, go to the Permissions tab and untick the tickbox that allows
this folder to receive inherited rights.

Always make sure you test the new security settings using another user
account. Security access control lists in NTFS can be tricky; especially if
you start using the 'deny' access control entries and it might lead to (at
first sight) unexpected behavior. Alternatively, you can use the 'Effective
Permissions' tab in the dialog box you get when clicking on 'Advanced...' in
the Security tab.

Cheers,
Jan.


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