Administrator password during WinXP installation?

From: asking11220 (asking11220_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 05/11/03 

Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 23:30:11 -0700

How come the Administrator account did not ask for a
password when WinXP Professional boots up to the WinXP
desktop for the first time after installation?

I have to create a user account and assign a password to
protect my computer.

What is the point in typing a password during WinXP
Professional installation for the Administrator account
when the Administrator account is not being use to ask
for a password before I can access WinXP desktop?

Xbitlabs Discussion Forum

Posted: 08 May 2003 23:54 Post subject: Administrator
password during WinXP installation?

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When I was installing WinXP Professional, the setup
program asked me to type in a password for Administrator.

When I boot my computer for the first time, there was no
password dialogue box asking I to type the password.

I had to create a user account, so the computer will ask
for a password when my computer boots.

I like to know what happens to the password I type for
Administrator during WinXP installation.

I think it went to the Twilight Zone because I do not
know where it went or how to access it.

Is it necessary to even type a password for Administrator
during WinXP Professional installation?

The user account I created feels second rate or feels has
less rights than the Administrator that I created during
WinXP Professional installation.

How do I invoke Administrator using the password I type
in during WinXP Professional installation?

I feel some of the software bugs that I experience is
because I am not configuring the OS using Administrator.

WinXP Professional I know is design for use in client
computer (workstation), not server. I still do not know
who is the Administrator if my computer is not suppose to
be the Adminsitrator because a client computer, not a
server computer.

My computer is a personal computer, not part or belongs
to a network.

Computer configuration:

350MHz Intel Pentium 3
Intel SE440BX-2 motherboard
Windows XP Professional upgrade

Note: Computer crash and is out of commission. It keeps
looping to select safe mode or other choices then reboots
to start the process again.
 
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Halo
X-bit Guru

Joined: 01 Jan 1970
Posts: 1691
Location: Kansas City, MO
 Posted: 09 May 2003 01:40 Post subject:

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You don't really use the Administrator account. You can
use it when you boot to safe mode, and there is an option
to enable it on the welcome screen (i think in the users
control panel, or maybe just in TweakUI), but you don't
really need to use the administrator account. All the
accounts you create in XP have Administrator privaliges
by default anyway.
And you don't have to type in a password for Admin during
installation, if you leave it blank things will go just
fine.
Wow, a P2-350 on WinXP...you should really go back to
Win2k!
I hope you have a lot of RAM!
_________________
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
Athlon XP 1700+ o/c to 2000+
384MBs of PC2100
Elsa Erazor III TNT2 32MB
80GB WD + 2x40GB WD in RAID 0
36x12x48 CD-RW
 
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cushionnl
Full Member

Joined: 01 Jan 1970
Posts: 201

 Posted: 09 May 2003 08:16 Post subject:

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Halo wrote:
All the accounts you create in XP have Administrator
privaliges by default anyway.
 

That seems like an unnecessary security risk. If I were
you, I should definately provide a password for the
Administrator account and use it for installations etc.
(in which case YOU are the administrator asking11220) and
downgrade the privileges on your user account(s). That
was always the way things worked by default in the past,
but I suppose Microsoft must be trying to ease the
transition from Win9x, at the expense of a potential
security hole.
 
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asking11220

Joined: 01 Jan 1970
Posts: 22

 Posted: 09 May 2003 23:39 Post subject:

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Quote:
I should definately provide a password for the
Administrator account and use it for installations etc.

>From your reply: I assume if I type the password for
Administrator during WinXP installation, when the
computer boots up for the first time, the Administrator
account should ask for the password before I can access
WinXP desktop.

Or are you inferring you know how to access the
Administrator account from any user account you created,
type the password, and from the Administrator account
install all your software.

I really like to know because the Administrator account
is a mystery to I.
 
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Halo
X-bit Guru

Joined: 01 Jan 1970
Posts: 1691
Location: Kansas City, MO
 Posted: 09 May 2003 23:45 Post subject:

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asking11220 wrote:
Quote:
I should definately provide a password for the
Administrator account and use it for installations etc.

>From your reply: I assume if I type the password for
Administrator during WinXP installation, when the
computer boots up for the first time, the Administrator
account should ask for the password before I can access
WinXP desktop.
 

It doesn't. The first time you reboot XP after
installation it asks you for your name and other names
for the user profiles, then gives them all the same
rights as the Administrator account.
You really don't need to use the Administrator account
with XP unless you purposely go in and change the rights
of the sub accounts. With XP Administrator isn't as
important anymore, however if you were in a corporate
enviroment where they wanted to lock user accounts down,
the Administrator account would be used to install new
software, change settings, etc.
But in a home enviroment all accounts have administrative
privalidges by default. Your account that is not called
Administrator is not any slower, is not second rate, is
not more buggy, and it has the same rights as the
Administrator.
_________________
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
Athlon XP 1700+ o/c to 2000+
384MBs of PC2100
Elsa Erazor III TNT2 32MB
80GB WD + 2x40GB WD in RAID 0
36x12x48 CD-RW
 
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asking11220

Joined: 01 Jan 1970
Posts: 22

 Posted: 11 May 2003 06:12 Post subject:

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Quote:
in a corporate enviroment where they wanted to lock user
accounts down, the Administrator account would be used to
install new software, change settings, etc.

I want "to lock user accounts down." How do I use the
Adminstrator account "to install new software, change
settings, etc."

I plan to upgrade to Pentium 4 next month once Intel
Springdale motherboard becomes available.

I like to know more about the Administrator account, so I
can protect my computer from unauthorize uses.
 
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