Thanks, Ted,

That makes a lot of sense, and helps me. However, I have apps which appear
on my Admin desktop, and on the taskbar when logged in as Admin, which are
not there when logged in as "User", even tho I did not intentionally install
differently. Is there a good online refrence to explain this?

TIA,
Craig

"Ted Zieglar" wrote in message
...
Good question.

Windows XP is used in many different settings, so it needs to accomodate
as
many of them as possible. XP was setup with user accounts so that, for
example, different family members could each use the computer with their
own
settings, and businesses could manage computers on their networks. You can
ignore the various user accounts - they do not affect your computer's
speed
or performance in any way and will not cause errors.

For example, the so-called Default User is not really a user account, but
a
collection of the default settings that will be present for all users.
This
gives all users a functional operating system right out of the box,
without
the need to spend hours configuring the computer.

The All Users account is also not really a user account, but a collection
of
Start menu and desktop selections that will appear on every user's
desktop.
This makes it easy to include the same Start menu and desktop icons on
every
user's computer.

The Administrator account has unrestricted access to the operating system.
This is needed if, for example, you want to install software, defragment
your computer, or perform other system level operations. You should not be
using an Administrator account for your day-to-day computing. If a virus
or
spyware infects your Administrator account, it too will have unrestricted
access to your computer. You don't want that. For everyday computing, you
want to use an account that has restricted access to the computer.

So you see, the account structure of XP is designed to make the computer
more convenient and safer. You don't have to pay attention to any account
other than your own.
--
Ted Zieglar