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User accounts, and directories under docs & settings
Hi,
I'm trying to understand how XP Pro handles users, administrators, etc. and the directories for these accounts. I have two PCs with XP Pro on them. One was bought with XP pre-installed and the other had it installed by me (from scratch, not as an upgrade). On the preinstalled (by Dell) system (call it X) I have these accounts: Control Panel/User Accounts John Administrator Robert Limited Guest Off Control Panel/System/Advanced/User Profiles Administrator John Robert CONTROL.EXE userpasswords2 Administrator John Robert Guest Directories under Documents and Settings: Administrator - with the usual stuff (application data, cookies, desktop etc.) but also has 'Administator's Documents' instead of 'My Documents'.) All Users Default User John LocalService Networkservice Robert On the other system call it Y) I have these: Control Panel/User Accounts John Administrator Guest Off Control Panel/System/Advanced/User Profiles John CONTROL.EXE userpasswords2 Administrator Guest John Directories under Documents and Settings: All Users Default User John LocalService Networkservice Ok... (Sorry about the length of this) My questions are... 1) Why does Administrator have a directory on system X but not on Y? 2) Why does Default User have 'Administrator's Documents' rather than 'My Documents' on System X 3) Why does Administrator not show up as a user under Control Panel/System/Advanced/User Profiles on system Y? I suspect that the answer to 1) is something to do with Dell having not set up any other user account, and just logged in as Administrator to configure my PC, and hence the 'user' directories for Administrator were set up. On system Y I don't think I ever logged in as Administrator (except maybe during install, if it's required) and set up my user account at the start. Ok, now another thought occurs. Is the answer to 2) linked to the above? Maybe it is created by copying the initial users directory during install? Does that make any sense? If not can you enlighten me? What about Q3? Another question... Can I delete that Administrator directory under Documents and Settings? I can't see what purpose it serves. Or does it have some use? Would a similar directory appear once I logged into the other system as Administrator? Thanks for any advice, John P.S. I can't help feeling that all this multi-user stuff is a little bit over the top for XP. It's all quite good in a way, but we are talking PCs here and not servers or mainframes. :-} |
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