What to do with all the stupid and unnecessary "other/guest" user accounts and directories?

Hello,

Is it possible to move all the directories from All Users to
Administrator or vice versa and change the re;evant/necessary
shortcuts? It is driving me INSANE to have to check in two
different places every time I want to make a change to the start
menu. (Not to mention the set-up it totally illogical - at least
to a non-MS employee.)

Any thoughts/suggestions on this and related themes would be
greatly appreciated. I am new to XP and while I am beginning to
get used to it, the redundancy of 5 (or more) copies of the
identical file (were it only *one* file - it seems there are
HUNDREDS) in different places and the unnecessary presence of
other user accounts on machine which only one person in the
world ever touches is driving me nuts.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

t.

Install Windows SteadyState & enable it in the Guest account. When anyone
else wants to use your computer, let 'em use that one.

thanatoid wrote:
Hello,

Is it possible to move all the directories from All Users to
Administrator or vice versa and change the re;evant/necessary
shortcuts? It is driving me INSANE to have to check in two
different places every time I want to make a change to the start
menu. (Not to mention the set-up it totally illogical - at least
to a non-MS employee.)

Any thoughts/suggestions on this and related themes would be
greatly appreciated. I am new to XP and while I am beginning to
get used to it, the redundancy of 5 (or more) copies of the
identical file (were it only *one* file - it seems there are
HUNDREDS) in different places and the unnecessary presence of
other user accounts on machine which only one person in the
world ever touches is driving me nuts.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

t.

On Dec 16, 11:38*pm, thanatoid wrote:
Hello,

Is it possible to move all the directories from All Users to
Administrator or vice versa and change the re;evant/necessary
shortcuts? It is driving me INSANE to have to check in two
different places every time I want to make a change to the start
menu. (Not to mention the set-up it totally illogical - at least
to a non-MS employee.)

Any thoughts/suggestions on this and related themes would be
greatly appreciated. I am new to XP and while I am beginning to
get used to it, the redundancy of 5 (or more) copies of the
identical file (were it only *one* file - it seems there are
HUNDREDS) in different places and the unnecessary presence of
other user accounts on machine which only one person in the
world ever touches is driving me nuts.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

t.

Can you provide an example or two of the types of changes that bring
on the (hopefully temporary) insanity?

If the one user is you, why do you think you need to make changes to
the guest account and other accounts?

Does the one user of the machine log in under different accounts and
why?

thanatoid wrote:
Hello,

Is it possible to move all the directories from All Users to
Administrator or vice versa and change the re;evant/necessary
shortcuts? It is driving me INSANE to have to check in two
different places every time I want to make a change to the start
menu. (Not to mention the set-up it totally illogical - at least
to a non-MS employee.)

Any thoughts/suggestions on this and related themes would be
greatly appreciated. I am new to XP and while I am beginning to
get used to it, the redundancy of 5 (or more) copies of the
identical file (were it only *one* file - it seems there are
HUNDREDS) in different places and the unnecessary presence of
other user accounts on machine which only one person in the
world ever touches is driving me nuts.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

t.

Stick everything in the "Start" under "All Users" amd ignore the others. It
would have been nice if XP did not *have* to be multi-user.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

dadiOH wrote:
thanatoid wrote:
Hello,

Is it possible to move all the directories from All Users to
Administrator or vice versa and change the re;evant/necessary
shortcuts? It is driving me INSANE to have to check in two
different places every time I want to make a change to the start
menu. (Not to mention the set-up it totally illogical - at least
to a non-MS employee.)

Any thoughts/suggestions on this and related themes would be
greatly appreciated. I am new to XP and while I am beginning to
get used to it, the redundancy of 5 (or more) copies of the
identical file (were it only *one* file - it seems there are
HUNDREDS) in different places and the unnecessary presence of
other user accounts on machine which only one person in the
world ever touches is driving me nuts.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

t.

Stick everything in the "Start" under "All Users" amd ignore the others. It
would have been nice if XP did not *have* to be multi-user.

Well, I will put it differently: it would have been nice to be offered
the possibility to use XP as a mono-user. Not everybody needs to set up
several accounts.

I have to admit that, once you understand you can get the desired result
by installing everything to "All Users" as you say, things are fairly
easy. Still, some applications do not give you a choice and on
occasions, one has to move shortcuts to the All Users start menu.

I admit that for less technically inclined users, this gets confusing.
But with just a little efforts, XP can most often behave as a single
user machine.

Things get more complicated after a crash, a restore system and some
other troubles where the user's settings go away to be replaced by
defaults. Again, nothing an reasonably advanced user cannot cure, but in
that case, daunting for others.

--
John Doue

Jose wrote in

oups.com:

On Dec 16, 11:38*pm, thanatoid
wrote:
Hello,

Is it possible to move all the directories from All Users
to Administrator or vice versa and change the
re;evant/necessary shortcuts? It is driving me INSANE to
have to check in two different places every time I want to
make a change to the start menu. (Not to mention the
set-up it totally illogical - at least to a non-MS
employee.)

Any thoughts/suggestions on this and related themes would
be greatly appreciated. I am new to XP and while I am
beginning to get used to it, the redundancy of 5 (or more)
copies of the identical file (were it only *one* file - it
seems there are HUNDREDS) in different places and the
unnecessary presence of other user accounts on machine
which only one person in the world ever touches is driving
me nuts.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

t.

Can you provide an example or two of the types of changes
that bring on the (hopefully temporary) insanity?

After bravely trying the 'standard' XP look for a few days, I
went to the "Classic" look and a normal start menu. Still, a
START menu is a Start menu.

For instance, in the Start Menu section (I have not been using
XP long enough to get into the other directories, aside from the
fact that I find "Documents" lumped together with "Settings"
insane - it's like storing explosives and matches in the same
box) WHY are all Administrative Tools - which non-MS logic would
suggest should be under the Administrator - under All Users???

WHY is there a "Startup" group in BOTH Admin and All Users and
WHY does it contain different items??????

And when I moved them, all sort of stuff got messed up and I had
to move them back. I believe one of the things I did was copy
everything from E:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Start
Menu\Programs\Accessories\Administrative Tools to E:\Documents
and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools
just in case, because I saw messing with "startup caused
problems - I no longer remember the exact nature of the
problems, I am getting old.

The MAIN point is WHY is there no option (or hack that I have
been able to find) to PERMANENTLY REMOVE the "all users"
directory? If it's a stand-alone non-networked machine - and IF
THERE IS ONLY ONE USER, of course s/he will be the
administrator, then WHY the directory?

I exaggerated the redundancy - having just checked the D&S and
WIN dirs in branch view (I use Total Commander, WE is not a file
manager), I see the identical files repeated 2 or 3 times.
There also ARE 7 identical (I checked by content) files named
"GLFB4.TMP" (slight name differences in the numbers, without any
perceptible logic of course) but they are fairly small...
still... WHY? They all say "this program can not be run in DOS
mode".

There ARE *FOUR* "ntuser.dat.LOG" files which are identical, but
in four different directories... Again, WHY?

Many other examples I won't bore you with... Since the operating
design and structure of XP is incomprehensible to me (I have
been using 3.1-98SE for the last 15+ years and I DO understand
/them/, I am willing to accept the things I don't even know
about, but a blatant assumption (and inconvenience) of dividing
things between "All Users" and "Admin" is what drives me nuts. I
will do the utmost to store documents where they SHOULD be
stored (meaning not in "My Documents") etc., but I haven't
gotten there yet.

If the one user is you, why do you think you need to make
changes to the guest account and other accounts?

I believe if there IS only one user, then ALL start Menu items
and other directories "in standard use" should be under THAT
user - ie the Admin. WHY all the rest?

And why is the start menu a mix of things from "all users" (and
there ARE *NO* other or guest accounts, NOTHING except a couple
which can NOT be deleted - why is another question) and from
"Admin"? It makes no sense, and if I try to group them in
different ways (there are MANY different things which can be
considered "accessories", and I like to group them according to
MY logic), the system seems to dislike it.

Does the one user of the machine log in under different
accounts and why?

No, I have myself (the Admin) auto-log on startup (I know that's
not advised, but I do NOT go on the net with XP and no one else
ever touches the computer; the ONLY reason I have installed XP
is because I have ONE program I have to use which won't run
under 9x) and there ARE no other users, so WHY a whole directory
with all the incomprehensible redundancies and annoyances in it?

I suppose many of these things were asked 8 years ago, but I
have no patience to search 8 years of Google archives and I
suspect there IS no complete solution - I am just hoping someone
may have SOME advice on how to deal with this.

"dadiOH" wrote in
:

SNIP

Stick everything in the "Start" under "All Users" amd
ignore the others. It would have been nice if XP did not
*have* to be multi-user.

Sure would have... I will try this suggestion, thank you.

John Doue wrote in
:

dadiOH wrote:

SNIP

Stick everything in the "Start" under "All Users" amd
ignore the others. It would have been nice if XP did not
*have* to be multi-user.

Well, I will put it differently: it would have been nice to
be offered the possibility to use XP as a mono-user. Not
everybody needs to set up several accounts.

Exactly.

I have to admit that, once you understand you can get the
desired result by installing everything to "All Users" as
you say, things are fairly easy.

This sounds promising, especially coming from 2 sources.

Still, some applications
do not give you a choice and on occasions, one has to move
shortcuts to the All Users start menu.
As long as they will still work, I can manage that.

I admit that for less technically inclined users, this gets
confusing. But with just a little efforts, XP can most
often behave as a single user machine.

I have spent little time with it so far, and I have just been
raging on about the most infuriating things... We'll see how it
goes.

Things get more complicated after a crash, a restore system
and some other troubles where the user's settings go away
to be replaced by defaults. Again, nothing an reasonably
advanced user cannot cure, but in that case, daunting for
others.

I have Acronis True Image and as soon as a basic setup
satisfactory setup is achieved, I will image it. I do not
believe in system restores, backup points, etc.

Thank you for your comments.

On 18 Dec 2009, thanatoid wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

I am just hoping someone may have SOME advice on how to deal with
this.

Someone does.

If you are anal enough, it could all be changed to be virtually the
way you dream it should be, but you lack the knowhow to do it, as
evidenced by the fact that you screw things up when you try. So just
ignore it and move on to more important things. You're making a big
deal out of insignificant trivia.

Nil wrote in
:

On 18 Dec 2009, thanatoid wrote
in microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

I am just hoping someone may have SOME advice on how to
deal with this.

Someone does.

If you are anal enough, it could all be changed to be
virtually the way you dream it should be, but you lack the
knowhow to do it, as evidenced by the fact that you screw
things up when you try.

You put things so nicely... I have only spent a total about 50
hrs. divided between 3 XP installs (the second one inexplicably
just went all to hell), so actually I don't think I am doing
THAT bad, but I agree it will be a long time before I know what
I need to know. Too bad some of the people who DO know would
rather state the obvious than help. At least you seem to imply
what I wish for IS possible. Time will tell.

So just ignore it and move on to
more important things.

In my miserable lonely life there are no more important things.
If there were, I wouldn't even /own/ a computer.

You're making a big deal out of insignificant trivia.

Different things have different significance for different
people.

I fully admit to being extremely anal-retentive and I know that
- theoretically - time could
be MUCH better spent doing other things than super-tweaking a
setup to my liking, but as you may not realize from your own
shiny/happy life experience, professional anal-retentives and
neurotics /do not/ have the option of choosing whether to be the
way they are or not.

On 18 Dec 2009, thanatoid wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

I fully admit to being extremely anal-retentive and I know that
- theoretically - time could be MUCH better spent doing other
things than super-tweaking a setup to my liking, but as you may
not realize from your own shiny/happy life experience,
professional anal-retentives and neurotics /do not/ have the
option of choosing whether to be the way they are or not.

You can spend all the time you want on this and it won't improve
your computing experience one iota. It all takes up an insignificant
amount of disk space and is completely ignorable. It has no effect
on system performance.

You would get more out of washing your hands ten times in a row or re-
re-re-counting the number of tiles in your kitchen floor. This quest is
a waste of your time.

Nil wrote in
:

SNIP

You can spend all the time you want on this and it won't
improve your computing experience one iota.

You have no idea what /I/ consider a "computing experience", so
be quiet.

It all takes up
an insignificant amount of disk space and is completely
ignorable.

If it were ignorable, I would ignore it. It is NOT ignorable,
unless you are a retarded gamer who is so busy playing MW2 (or
whatever - I just happen to be aware of this title) all the time
to even notice what your desktop looks like.

It has no effect on system performance.

WHERE did I EVER say performance is of ANY concern to me? I just
HATE the idiotic made-for-morons XP interface and system design.
I used a 166MHz P1 with 64MB RAM, a 33.6 modem, running Windows
95B until about a year and a half ago and I was /perfectly/
happy with it.

It was faster than whatever YOU are using, trust me. The ONLY
thing it could not do was convert music (it could, but took 4
hrs for a 3-minute song) or show movies - which I am not
interested it, just like I am not interested in games. I got a
2GHz machine for music - that's the one I am trying XP on.

You would get more out of washing your hands ten times in a
row or re- re-re-counting the number of tiles in your
kitchen floor. This quest is a waste of your time.

You are beginning to get a little annoying, you know?

If you are only interested in making pointless and ignorant
(look up the REAL meaning of the word) comments, leave it those
who are MUCH better at it than you.

On 18 Dec 2009, thanatoid wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

If it were ignorable, I would ignore it. It is NOT ignorable,
unless you are a retarded gamer who is so busy playing MW2 (or
whatever - I just happen to be aware of this title) all the time
to even notice what your desktop looks like.

Everybody else ignores it. Gaming has nothing to do with it. You will
be forced to ignore it, too, unless you continue tinkering with things
you don't understand until you break the thing completely.

There are legitimate reasons why Windows is set up the way it is. If
you don't like it, you probably should find another operating system
that can better accommodate obsessive-compulsives.

It was faster than whatever YOU are using, trust me.

You have no idea what /I/ was using, so be quiet.

You are beginning to get a little annoying, you know?

If you are only interested in making pointless and ignorant
(look up the REAL meaning of the word) comments, leave it those
who are MUCH better at it than you.

Reality can be uncomfortable and sometimes causes excessively sweaty
palms. Better go wash your hands again.

Nil wrote in
:

SNIP

k, 0, Enter

On 19 Dec 2009, thanatoid wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

Nil wrote in
:

SNIP

k, 0, Enter

OK!

See you again soon, after you completely farkle your system and come
begging for help.