Old "Log In As Another User" option in XP?

[Iskandar Taib]

OK, here's and interesting one. I've got a bunch of PCs
in a student lab. They're all identical (except for IP
numbers and computer name). All have identical accounts
set up - a user account (no password), and an admin
account (password protected). All run Windows XP
Professional, factory installed. Still using Fat32, still
no domain (this will change). The Guest account is
inactive.

Here's the funny part. If I log into machine A as the
administrator, I can't access administrative share "c$"
on machine B (Start -> Run -> \\B\C$ -> Run). (Usernames
and passwords are the same on both machines.) What
happens is a login box appears, with the username greyed
out, but fixed as "B/guest". What's going on? This works
fine on all other Windows XP machines I've tried it on.

Incidentally - I've found that, on these machines, and on
others with factory-installed XP, if you change the login
method to not use the Welcome Screen, you can then log in
as "Administrator" without using a password. Apparently,
during the factory install, a password wasn't set for the
built in "Administrator" account, and this remains, even
if you set a password for the new administrator account
that shows up on the Welcome Screen. I've had my workers
set passwords for "Administrator" on all the machines by
using "Manage" (right click My Computer).

[Roger Abell [MVP]]

The machine that is trying to force you to a Guest login
is still set to use Simplified sharing . This is set at bottom
of the View tab of the Folder Options.

You may be confusing "the" Administrator account, which
OEMs often do leave with a blank password, and some
account that has as a display name Administrator.
Use lusrmgr.msc to get to the bottom of that one and look
at the properties of the accounts.


"Iskandar Taib" > wrote in message
...
> OK, here's and interesting one. I've got a bunch of PCs
> in a student lab. They're all identical (except for IP
> numbers and computer name). All have identical accounts
> set up - a user account (no password), and an admin
> account (password protected). All run Windows XP
> Professional, factory installed. Still using Fat32, still
> no domain (this will change). The Guest account is
> inactive.
>
> Here's the funny part. If I log into machine A as the
> administrator, I can't access administrative share "c$"
> on machine B (Start -> Run -> \\B\C$ -> Run). (Usernames
> and passwords are the same on both machines.) What
> happens is a login box appears, with the username greyed
> out, but fixed as "B/guest". What's going on? This works
> fine on all other Windows XP machines I've tried it on.
>
> Incidentally - I've found that, on these machines, and on
> others with factory-installed XP, if you change the login
> method to not use the Welcome Screen, you can then log in
> as "Administrator" without using a password. Apparently,
> during the factory install, a password wasn't set for the
> built in "Administrator" account, and this remains, even
> if you set a password for the new administrator account
> that shows up on the Welcome Screen. I've had my workers
> set passwords for "Administrator" on all the machines by
> using "Manage" (right click My Computer).
>
>

[Iskandar Taib]

"Roger Abell [MVP]" > wrote in message >...
> The machine that is trying to force you to a Guest login
> is still set to use Simplified sharing . This is set at bottom
> of the View tab of the Folder Options.
>
> You may be confusing "the" Administrator account, which
> OEMs often do leave with a blank password, and some
> account that has as a display name Administrator.
> Use lusrmgr.msc to get to the bottom of that one and look
> at the properties of the accounts.

The other administrator account (which does have a password, which we
set earlier) does have a different username. "The" administrator
account did indeed have a blank password, and I wasn't aware that
there was a "the" administrator account until I started poking around
on the machine. I guess it's a problem if (a) you had a machine with
factory installed XP, and (b) if you decided not to use the Simplified
Security. It's also a problem is people have access to the console (in
this case, it's a lab, so this IS a problem).

[Iskandar Taib]

OK, here's some more info. I played with this all morning, and I found
that the only way to get sharing to work was to have identical local
accounts, both with passwords, on both machines. (The Share will have
to belong to the account on one of the machines.)If you don't, it
forces Guest account logins, which don't seem to work, either. I did
make sure "Simple File Sharing" was turned off on both machines, in
all accounts. Try as I might, I can't get XP Pro to give me the old
"Log in as another user" prompt we used to see in NT4.

Again, machine configurations:

Windows XP Pro factory installation
FAT32 (is this the problem?)
Simple File Sharing turned off
Local accounts, workgroup (waiting for our domain controllers to come)
Local accounts: One user account, no password (I did experiment with
putting passwords on them this morning - XP HATES no password logins
when it comes to shares..), one administrator account with password.


"Roger Abell [MVP]" > wrote in message >...
> The machine that is trying to force you to a Guest login
> is still set to use Simplified sharing . This is set at bottom
> of the View tab of the Folder Options.
>
>
> "Iskandar Taib" > wrote in message
> ...
> > OK, here's and interesting one. I've got a bunch of PCs
> > in a student lab. They're all identical (except for IP
> > numbers and computer name). All have identical accounts
> > set up - a user account (no password), and an admin
> > account (password protected). All run Windows XP
> > Professional, factory installed. Still using Fat32, still
> > no domain (this will change). The Guest account is
> > inactive.
> >
> > Here's the funny part. If I log into machine A as the
> > administrator, I can't access administrative share "c$"
> > on machine B (Start -> Run -> \\B\C$ -> Run). (Usernames
> > and passwords are the same on both machines.) What
> > happens is a login box appears, with the username greyed
> > out, but fixed as "B/guest". What's going on? This works
> > fine on all other Windows XP machines I've tried it on.