Accounts Management

[Muzzy]

We recently set up a new peer to peer network with most of the PCs being
replaced and the new ones using XP Pro.
The *thing* works pretty well except for a couple of machines; and the guys
who did the cabling and deployment are suddenly *unavailable*.
Basically they had no strategy/policy for setting up the accounts and so we
have set a very simple one ourselves - i.e each PC will have an
Administrator a/c [with full rights and separate p/w etc.] and one for the
actual *workstation* user with limited rights.
Our problem is what to do with the couple of machines that were set up with
full rights.
We've tried to rename accounts , change rights etc. but it produces
problems - for example when logged on under the limited rights user the
screen saver resume will only activate with the Administrator's password.
We've also noticed that playing around with these settings has produced
user settings like *Fred-2* when *Fred* was the original a/c name.
I'm really looking for a method to reset everything re: these accounts
without losing all other settings like IE and OE etc. and [maybe] apps.
What would happen if I go to *Docs & Settings* etc. and just delete all the
user folders and start fro m scratch?

Any help gratefully received

MTIA
Cassie

[Malke]

Muzzy wrote:

> We recently set up a new peer to peer network with most of the PCs
> being replaced and the new ones using XP Pro.
> The *thing* works pretty well except for a couple of machines; and the
> guys who did the cabling and deployment are suddenly *unavailable*.
> Basically they had no strategy/policy for setting up the accounts and
> so we have set a very simple one ourselves - i.e each PC will have an
> Administrator a/c [with full rights and separate p/w etc.] and one
> for the actual *workstation* user with limited rights.
> Our problem is what to do with the couple of machines that were set
> up with full rights.
> We've tried to rename accounts , change rights etc. but it produces
> problems - for example when logged on under the limited rights user
> the screen saver resume will only activate with the Administrator's
> password.
> We've also noticed that playing around with these settings has
> produced user settings like *Fred-2* when *Fred* was the original a/c
> name. I'm really looking for a method to reset everything re: these
> accounts without losing all other settings like IE and OE etc. and
> [maybe] apps. What would happen if I go to *Docs & Settings* etc. and
> just delete all the user folders and start fro m scratch?
>
OK, without knowing more about your network, it's impossible to give
exact advice. Are you using a server/workstation setup? A domain? How
many clients, what server and client operating systems, etc.? How big
an office? You need to designate someone in your office to learn about
some simple network administration or hire someone. The easiest thing
to do is set up one computer exactly the way you want (formatting and
clean installing the operating system to start with) and then ghost all
the others. Renaming accounts is just muddying the waters - you should
start fresh.

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!