XP compared to W2000 - no logging on required ?

[Richard Shea]

Hi - I'm a windows 2000 user who is trying to help their next door
neighbour who has just bought a XP based machine.

One thing that puzzles me is that when the machine starts up there is
no prompt to logon so I presume there is some sort of default user
which you are logged on as - is this correct ? Is this default user
the Administrator ? If not how do I find out who it is ? Also if he
(my next door neighbour) has never used the Administrator userid what
would the default password of the Administrator be ?

I'm asking this because I have to install the Blaster security patch
for him and I suspect that I will have to be logged on as
Administrator in order to do so.

thanks

richard shea.

[Chris Jackson]

If you have only one account set up on the machine, that account has no
password, and that account has admin privileges, then XP will just sign you
in when it boots up. So, unless your neighbor used TweakUI to set up the
auto login, it is an admin account.

If your neighbor isn't an admin, just hit windows-L to get to the login
screen. The admin password is set during startup. If your neighbor doesn't
remember, I would try using a black password. There is no default per-se,
though I can't speak for every OEM out there (or even any of them, really).

--
Chris Jackson
Software Engineer
Microsoft MVP - Windows XP
Windows XP Associate Expert
--
"Richard Shea" > wrote in message
om...
> Hi - I'm a windows 2000 user who is trying to help their next door
> neighbour who has just bought a XP based machine.
>
> One thing that puzzles me is that when the machine starts up there is
> no prompt to logon so I presume there is some sort of default user
> which you are logged on as - is this correct ? Is this default user
> the Administrator ? If not how do I find out who it is ? Also if he
> (my next door neighbour) has never used the Administrator userid what
> would the default password of the Administrator be ?
>
> I'm asking this because I have to install the Blaster security patch
> for him and I suspect that I will have to be logged on as
> Administrator in order to do so.
>
> thanks
>
> richard shea.

[Richard Shea]

Hi Chris - Thanks very much for the prompt and helpful response, I appreciate it.

regards

richard shea.


"Chris Jackson" > wrote in message >...
> If you have only one account set up on the machine, that account has no
> password, and that account has admin privileges, then XP will just sign you
> in when it boots up. So, unless your neighbor used TweakUI to set up the
> auto login, it is an admin account.
>
> If your neighbor isn't an admin, just hit windows-L to get to the login
> screen. The admin password is set during startup. If your neighbor doesn't
> remember, I would try using a black password. There is no default per-se,
> though I can't speak for every OEM out there (or even any of them, really).
>
> --
> Chris Jackson
> Software Engineer
> Microsoft MVP - Windows XP
> Windows XP Associate Expert
> --
> "Richard Shea" > wrote in message
> om...
> > Hi - I'm a windows 2000 user who is trying to help their next door
> > neighbour who has just bought a XP based machine.
> >
> > One thing that puzzles me is that when the machine starts up there is
> > no prompt to logon so I presume there is some sort of default user
> > which you are logged on as - is this correct ? Is this default user
> > the Administrator ? If not how do I find out who it is ? Also if he
> > (my next door neighbour) has never used the Administrator userid what
> > would the default password of the Administrator be ?
> >
> > I'm asking this because I have to install the Blaster security patch
> > for him and I suspect that I will have to be logged on as
> > Administrator in order to do so.
> >
> > thanks
> >
> > richard shea.

[Alex Nichol]

Richard Shea wrote:

>
>One thing that puzzles me is that when the machine starts up there is
>no prompt to logon so I presume there is some sort of default user
>which you are logged on as - is this correct ? Is this default user
>the Administrator ? If not how do I find out who it is ? Also if he
>(my next door neighbour) has never used the Administrator userid what
>would the default password of the Administrator be ?


XP normally has a reserve account called 'Administrator' as well as at
least one regular user with admin status - the latter is all you *need*
for things like patches; 'Administrator' is in reserve and is not shown
at Welcome provided you have this regular admin status account. So if
you have only that single user registered, and it does not have a
password, the logon goes straight ahead.

If you boot into Safe Mode by hitting F8 as BIOS info goes to black,
'Administrator' will also appear on the Welcome screen; and if it is XP
Pro you can hit CTL-ALT-DEL twice at Welcome to get the regular Win NT
logon dialog


--=20
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K.

[phil paxton]

Alex Nichol > wrote in message >...
> Richard Shea wrote:

> >One thing that puzzles me is that when the machine starts up there is
> >no prompt to logon so I presume there is some sort of default user
> >which you are logged on as - is this correct ? Is this default user
> >the Administrator ? If not how do I find out who it is ? Also if he
> >(my next door neighbour) has never used the Administrator userid what
> >would the default password of the Administrator be ?

> XP normally has a reserve account called 'Administrator' as well as at
> least one regular user with admin status - the latter is all you *need*
> for things like patches; 'Administrator' is in reserve and is not shown
> at Welcome provided you have this regular admin status account. So if
> you have only that single user registered, and it does not have a
> password, the logon goes straight ahead.
>
> If you boot into Safe Mode by hitting F8 as BIOS info goes to black,
> 'Administrator' will also appear on the Welcome screen; and if it is XP
> Pro you can hit CTL-ALT-DEL twice at Welcome to get the regular Win NT
> logon dialog

One of my pet peeves has been having to create an extra administrative
account during setup. What if I want one and only one?
(Administrator)

I have learned that if I get to the point of setup where it's
prompting me for another administrative-level userid, I can reboot and
it apparently skips over that step of the setup, avoiding an extra id.
The $64k question is: does this mean Microsoft has created a
behind-the-scenes bogus id (which someone else might know and log in)
or does this appear to do what it really seems to do: create a single
Administrator id?