Adding user accounts after adminstrator account has been used

[Sarge]

I'm running Windows XP Media Edition (home), factory
installed, on a new computer. We've been accessing all
our programs and documents using the system installed
administrator acct & did not create any user accounts.
We discovered the hard way that as soon as you create the
first user account, the administrator account disappears
along with everything in the my documents, favorites,
programs, etc. I was able to perform a system restore to
bring back the administrator account & all our important
data.
I now need to know how to set up the first user account
without having the same thing happen & losing everything
(programs, my docs, etc.)

I'm also running Norton & when the Windows XP
administrator account disappears, I lose the Norton
adminstrator account & don't have the privileges to
perform key Norton functionalities.

Thanks in advance for assistance!!

[Kelly]

Media Center Home? Media Center 2004 is based on XP Pro, which I am running
here.

How to Copy User Profiles:

Open System in Control Panel. On the User Profiles tab, and under Profiles
stored on this computer, click the user profile you want to copy, and then
click Copy To.

In the Copy To dialog box, under Copy profile to, type the location for the
new profile, or click Browse to select the path.
Click Change to open the Choose User dialog box, click a new user from the
Names list, and then click Add. The new user name will appear in Add Name.
Click OK to add the user as a new user profile on your computer.

Note: You must be logged on as an administrator to the local computer to
copy user profiles. To open a Control Panel item, click Start, point to
Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click the appropriate icon.

Note 2: You cannot copy the account you are currently logged in on. You
must log into another account.

Note 3: If you create a new account, you must logon once before you copy
another account over top of it. Windows creates the user profile at logon,
not at account creation, and it will not use the copy you created before
that first logon, it will create a user.COMPUTERNAME folder instead.

Note 4: To resolve this issue, verify that the user account is not logged
on before you try to copy its profile. If you are currently logged on as
this user, log off, log on again by using a different user account, and then
copy the profile. If you are not logged on as the user account that you are
trying to copy, that account may be logged on in a different session (using
Fast User Switching).

To force that account to be logged off, start Task Manager, click the Users
tab, click the user account, and then click Logoff.

To work around this behavior, you can also create a user who has
administrative privileges, log on as that user, and then copy the profile of
the first user.

How to Show Administrator on the Welcome Screen:

TweakUI/Logon/Show Administrator on the Welcome Screen
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp

Or...

Enable/Disable Administrator on Welcome Screen (Line 5)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

How to gain access to the Admin account without it being listed on the
Welcome Screen:

On Pro Edition, from the Welcome screen, press ctrl-Alt-Delete Twice. On
Home, boot to Safe Mode, and logon.


--
All the Best,
Kelly

Microsoft-MVP Windows® XP

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com

Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm


"Sarge" > wrote in message
...
> I'm running Windows XP Media Edition (home), factory
> installed, on a new computer. We've been accessing all
> our programs and documents using the system installed
> administrator acct & did not create any user accounts.
> We discovered the hard way that as soon as you create the
> first user account, the administrator account disappears
> along with everything in the my documents, favorites,
> programs, etc. I was able to perform a system restore to
> bring back the administrator account & all our important
> data.
> I now need to know how to set up the first user account
> without having the same thing happen & losing everything
> (programs, my docs, etc.)
>
> I'm also running Norton & when the Windows XP
> administrator account disappears, I lose the Norton
> adminstrator account & don't have the privileges to
> perform key Norton functionalities.
>
> Thanks in advance for assistance!!