Administrator Account'

"Summer1" wrote in message
...
I am signed in as a 'Limited User.'

Why?

For daily use, should I be signed in as a 'Limited User,' 'User with admin
priviledges,' or 'Admin?'

Use the actual "Administrator" account only when you absolutely have to.

Unless you're regularly going to risky sites, it's inconvenient to use
Limited permissions. I would normally give such accounts to client's
children, when they need to be prevented from making random system changes.

I use administrator-level accounts normally, because I regularly have to do
things that require those permissions. Some programs, fewer these days,
won't run properly or at all under Limited accounts. You will find out
when you try to run them.

I do not normally use the built-in Administrator account (that's the one
with the log-in name "Administrator") for anything other than initial user
account creation or emergency maintenance. You want to protect that
account as much as possible, and the first way to do that is to not use it
unless you *have* to.

What happens if I am on a webpage and a program has an update (such as
Windows Automatic Update) ?

If you're in an account that doesn't have the permissions to install system
components, you won't be able to install them.

Do I have to
sign out of 'User' and into 'Administrator' and then go back to that
webpage
or can I accept the install through the User' with admin priviledges?

I suggest you try it. You'll find out very quickly. A lot depends on
what the page or program requires, and that can't be predicted here.

HTH
-pk

You have not answered my question though:

For 'daily use,' is it safe to be signed in as 'User' with Admin priviledges?

"Patrick Keenan" wrote:

"Summer1" wrote in message
...
I am signed in as a 'Limited User.'

Why?

For daily use, should I be signed in as a 'Limited User,' 'User with admin
priviledges,' or 'Admin?'

Use the actual "Administrator" account only when you absolutely have to.

Unless you're regularly going to risky sites, it's inconvenient to use
Limited permissions. I would normally give such accounts to client's
children, when they need to be prevented from making random system changes.

I use administrator-level accounts normally, because I regularly have to do
things that require those permissions. Some programs, fewer these days,
won't run properly or at all under Limited accounts. You will find out
when you try to run them.

I do not normally use the built-in Administrator account (that's the one
with the log-in name "Administrator") for anything other than initial user
account creation or emergency maintenance. You want to protect that
account as much as possible, and the first way to do that is to not use it
unless you *have* to.

What happens if I am on a webpage and a program has an update (such as
Windows Automatic Update) ?

If you're in an account that doesn't have the permissions to install system
components, you won't be able to install them.

Do I have to
sign out of 'User' and into 'Administrator' and then go back to that
webpage
or can I accept the install through the User' with admin priviledges?

I suggest you try it. You'll find out very quickly. A lot depends on
what the page or program requires, and that can't be predicted here.

HTH
-pk

"Summer1" wrote in message
...
You have not answered my question though:

For 'daily use,' is it safe to be signed in as 'User' with Admin
priviledges?

"Patrick Keenan" wrote:

"Summer1" wrote in message
...
I am signed in as a 'Limited User.'

Why?

For daily use, should I be signed in as a 'Limited User,' 'User with
admin
priviledges,' or 'Admin?'

Use the actual "Administrator" account only when you absolutely have to.

Unless you're regularly going to risky sites, it's inconvenient to use
Limited permissions. I would normally give such accounts to client's
children, when they need to be prevented from making random system
changes.

I use administrator-level accounts normally, because I regularly have to
do
things that require those permissions. Some programs, fewer these days,
won't run properly or at all under Limited accounts. You will find out
when you try to run them.

I do not normally use the built-in Administrator account (that's the one
with the log-in name "Administrator") for anything other than initial
user
account creation or emergency maintenance. You want to protect that
account as much as possible, and the first way to do that is to not use
it
unless you *have* to.

What happens if I am on a webpage and a program has an update (such as
Windows Automatic Update) ?

If you're in an account that doesn't have the permissions to install
system
components, you won't be able to install them.

Do I have to
sign out of 'User' and into 'Administrator' and then go back to that
webpage
or can I accept the install through the User' with admin priviledges?

I suggest you try it. You'll find out very quickly. A lot depends on
what the page or program requires, and that can't be predicted here.

HTH
-pk




It's been fairly comprehensively discussed; time for you to make a decision.

Based on what you've written so far, it sounds to me like the answer for you
is "it's probably not necessary".

You have not answered my question though:

For 'daily use,' is it safe to be signed in as 'User' with Admin
priviledges?

In a general sense, no. From a best practices view, no. By running as
a limited user, viruses, trojans, worms, general malware will often be
restricted to infecting that user's account only. Since a "user"
doesn't have permissions to make changes outside his own area of
privileges, neither can malware. So the rest of the machine gains some
protection that way. Other users may not notice the intrusions and not
be affected.
By running as an admin, any malware then has the admin's permissions
to modify/change/add to/delete anything that admin has
rights/permissions for.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell, for a single-user machine.

A User may also have special permissions given to him. There are
"levels", such as Power User, most of an Admin's permissions but not
all, a backup admin, just like it sounds, can do backups others cannot,
and so on.
In other words yuo could if you want to assign SOME of the admin's
permissions to a User Account, but not all of them. It's better than a
full Admin account, but still each added permission opens another
possible area of damage.

IME it seems that more people run as Admins than do User accounts, for
whatever reason, usually the hassle of having to switch accounts to do
things. But don't forget, you usually can us the "Run As" and simply
choose your Admin account for that short period of time, then close that
user once you're done, and go back to work.

So it's best to run as a user. But not the most covenient. It's safer
to run as a user but more inconvenient. Perhaps setting yourself up as
a Power User might work for you instead of an Admin for day to day use.

See Help & Support for Power User for more info. Here's an
excerpt:

Power Users
Members of the Power Users group can create user accounts, but can
modify and delete only those accounts they create. They can create local
groups and remove users from local groups they have created. They can
also remove users from the Power Users, Users, and Guests groups.
They cannot modify the Administrators or Backup Operators groups, nor
can they take ownership of files, back up or restore directories, load
or unload device drivers, or manage the security and auditing logs.

HTH

Twayne




"Patrick Keenan" wrote:

"Summer1" wrote in message
...
I am signed in as a 'Limited User.'

Why?

For daily use, should I be signed in as a 'Limited User,' 'User
with admin priviledges,' or 'Admin?'

Use the actual "Administrator" account only when you absolutely have
to.

Unless you're regularly going to risky sites, it's inconvenient to
use Limited permissions. I would normally give such accounts to
client's children, when they need to be prevented from making random
system changes.

I use administrator-level accounts normally, because I regularly
have to do things that require those permissions. Some programs,
fewer these days, won't run properly or at all under Limited
accounts. You will find out when you try to run them.

I do not normally use the built-in Administrator account (that's the
one with the log-in name "Administrator") for anything other than
initial user account creation or emergency maintenance. You want
to protect that account as much as possible, and the first way to do
that is to not use it unless you *have* to.

What happens if I am on a webpage and a program has an update (such
as Windows Automatic Update) ?

If you're in an account that doesn't have the permissions to install
system components, you won't be able to install them.

Do I have to
sign out of 'User' and into 'Administrator' and then go back to that
webpage
or can I accept the install through the User' with admin
priviledges?

I suggest you try it. You'll find out very quickly. A lot
depends on what the page or program requires, and that can't be
predicted here.

HTH
-pk

"Twayne" wrote in message
...
Hi,

Learning something new, especially on a computer, is often a seemingly
complex though actually simple set of concepts which, once the structure
and semantics are worked out, turn into knowledge that will be useful for
a long, long time.
IMO Summer1 has done a great job of clear, concise postings, otherwise
actually known as clarification/verification, and Jim has shown an
outstanding incidence of responding in kind, and avoiding the "confusion
by facts" that a lot of people get bogged down in. This is the meeting of
two thinking minds and refreshing to see these days.
KUDOS to both of you, especially Jim for his willingness to answer the
questions without judgement or muddy water. Thanks to Summer1, the
answers to the questions he asked are going to be useful to many, many
people for some time to come via Google and other such repositories.

Best Regards,

Twayne

It is a darn good thing you approve!!! Otherwise it would be worthless
information :-) You are the god of approval, right?




Hiya

I definitely have XP Pro.

I do not want to 'delete' data.

I want to make sure that I am being clear: I installed programs and
customized settings under Admin. Since I should not be signed in as
Admin on a regular basis, I created a 'User profile but then realized
that I had to 'copy' my progrtams from Admin. Now I have 'two'
accounts with the 'exact' same info-Isn't that taking up space?

"Malke" wrote:

Summer1 wrote:

I should have added that I am using Windows XP Pro with Service
Pack 3 and IE 7.

"Summer1" wrote:

I am the only one using this computer and it has two accounts:
Admninistrator and User.

When I bought this pre-owned computer, it was signed in as an
'Administrator' (which I did not know at the time).

I installed programs and customized settings under this account.
When I realized that it should all be under the 'User Account,' I
copied everything but now have 'duplicate' files on both accounts,
taking up unnecessary space.

How do I delete programs on the Administrator' account and go back
to the 'original' Windows XP settings before I customized them or
should programs be installed/settings be customized in
Administrator mode?


You do not delete programs under user accounts. Programs are global.
You can delete *data* from the Administrator's My Documents if you
have duplicated it in your own user account's My Documents. You can
also run CCleaner in the Administrator account to get rid of
temporary files. Caveat: do not use the registry tools or any of the
other tools in CCleaner or there is a good possibility you will
break your system. Just use it to get rid of temporary and Temporary
Internet Files. There is no need to play about with any settings in
that account since no one will be using it and any settings such as
browser favorites take up basically no room.

To access the Administrator account simply log into it from the
Welcome Screen. Do whatever you need to do and then log back out and
into your regular account. If you can't see the Administrator
account on the Welcome Screen, since you have XP Pro:

At the Welcome Screen do Ctrl-Alt-Del twice to get the classic logon
box. Enter "Administrator" (without the quotes of course) for the
username and whatever password you assigned. If you didn't assign a
password, leave that field blank and hit Enter.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ