1. OT: Win XP admin by #%@ DEFAULT!
I noticed a post here advising to NOT surf the web from admin account, so
I decided to see how I had set up my system.
And I discover that I HAVE been running as admin, simply because I set
my system up for single user, which is necessarily admin, and never knew to
set up an additional account for normal usage. (I find some info about that
in windows help NOW, but didn't see any WARNING when I was setting up
my system.)
So now I'd like to set up as it should be, but discover that all my settings,
favorites, etc, of course, are NOT carried over into new non-admin account.
Can anyone suggest easy way to carry ALL previous user setting over to new
account??
Dan Moyer
(wondering if anyone else was so foolish?)
2. Re: OT: Win XP admin by #%@ DEFAULT!
Dan Moyer wrote:
>
> I noticed a post here advising to NOT surf the web from admin account, so
> I decided to see how I had set up my system.
>
> And I discover that I HAVE been running as admin, simply because I set
> my system up for single user, which is necessarily admin, and never knew to
>
> set up an additional account for normal usage. (I find some info about that
> in windows help NOW, but didn't see any WARNING when I was setting up
> my system.)
>
> So now I'd like to set up as it should be, but discover that all my settings,
> favorites, etc, of course, are NOT carried over into new non-admin account.
>
> Can anyone suggest easy way to carry ALL previous user setting over to new
> account??
>
> Dan Moyer
> (wondering if anyone else was so foolish?)
Hello Dan,
Yes I was so foolish.
I set the original (admin-account) to my girl friends name.
(That always comes up on the guitar on start-up)
I set up no guest accounts.
I don't care or want to change it.
Anyone using the computer has to use her name. (It doesn't ask which user to
select --This saves time logging in--).
Nobody uses the computer but her or me.
Of course she can change the administator privilages. But I don't think she
knows how to do this.
Don Cole
3. Re: OT: Win XP admin by #%@ DEFAULT!
don cole wrote:
>
> Dan Moyer wrote:
> >
> > I noticed a post here advising to NOT surf the web from admin account, so
> > I decided to see how I had set up my system.
> >
> > And I discover that I HAVE been running as admin, simply because I set
> > my system up for single user, which is necessarily admin, and never knew to
> >
> > set up an additional account for normal usage. (I find some info about that
> > in windows help NOW, but didn't see any WARNING when I was setting up
> > my system.)
> >
> > So now I'd like to set up as it should be, but discover that all my
> > settings,
> > favorites, etc, of course, are NOT carried over into new non-admin account.
> >
> > Can anyone suggest easy way to carry ALL previous user setting over to new
> > account??
> >
> > Dan Moyer
> > (wondering if anyone else was so foolish?)
>
> Hello Dan,
>
> Yes I was so foolish.
>
> I set the original (admin-account) to my girl friends name.
>
> (That always comes up on the guitar on start-up)
>
> I set up no guest accounts.
>
> I don't care or want to change it.
>
> Anyone using the computer has to use her name. (It doesn't ask which user to
> select --This saves time logging in--).
>
> Nobody uses the computer but her or me.
>
> Of course she can change the administator privilages. But I don't think she
> knows how to do this.
>
>
> Don Cole
Don,
Actually, if I understand it correctly, which I may not, guest accounts,
as opposed to regular user accounts, don't have any password at all, and
can't change *any* settings? And no admin can, I think, alter admin
privileges: an account is either admin, user(limited,non-admin), or guest.
And while your way may be somewhat easier, the advice I saw here,
and similar suggestion in windows help says it's (more?) unsafe to surf
as an administrator, because malicious sites can more easily do more damage
to or make more surreptitious use of your computer if it can easily hijack
your admin privileges.
So the point would be to eliminate that opportunity by *not* normally running
as admin, which is what I'm trying to do.
But I'd like to "copy" all the myrid settings/histor/etc I've accumulated,
into the new user account, as easily as possible, sigh.
Dan
4. Re: OT: Win XP admin by #%@ DEFAULT!
Hi
I run as admin too - everyone else in the family uses that too - I decided
that separate accounts for everyone in the family would lead to too many
IT support issues, and that it was less hassle just to anti virus, anti trojan,
firewall, and monitor my kids MSN ing. I haven't had any probs to date with
malware. Plus, a separate account for everyone uses a horrendous amount of hard
drive space (even in these days of multi gig drives).
Chris
===================================================================================
There is a train of thought that a generalist knows a little about a lot of
things,
and that a specialist knows a lot about very little.
If you took this to the extreme, you could become so specialised so as to know
everything there was to know about nothing.
===================================================================================
http://euallegro.wikispaces.com
http://members.aol.com/chriscrylex/euphoria.htm
http://uboard.proboards32.com/
http://members.aol.com/chriscrylex/EUSQLite/eusql.html
5. Re: OT: Win XP admin by #%@ DEFAULT!
Dan Moyer wrote:
>
> I noticed a post here advising to NOT surf the web from admin account, so
> I decided to see how I had set up my system.
>
> And I discover that I HAVE been running as admin, simply because I set
> my system up for single user, which is necessarily admin, and never knew to
>
> set up an additional account for normal usage. (I find some info about that
> in windows help NOW, but didn't see any WARNING when I was setting up
> my system.)
>
> So now I'd like to set up as it should be, but discover that all my settings,
> favorites, etc, of course, are NOT carried over into new non-admin account.
>
> Can anyone suggest easy way to carry ALL previous user setting over to new
> account??
>
> Dan Moyer
> (wondering if anyone else was so foolish?)
When I use Windows, yes I use admin status. :)
If you're trying to copy over all of your preferences and documents, then write
a Euphoria script to do it. That may just be easier than doing it all either from
the command line or using explorer. :)
-M.
6. Re: OT: Win XP admin by #%@ DEFAULT!
Chris Burch wrote:
>
> Hi
>
> I run as admin too - everyone else in the family uses that too - I decided
> that separate accounts for everyone in the family would lead to too many
> IT support issues, and that it was less hassle just to anti virus, anti
> trojan,
> firewall, and monitor my kids MSN ing. I haven't had any probs to date with
> malware.
So maybe my concern is much ado about nothing?
>Plus, a separate account for everyone uses a horrendous amount of hard
> drive space (even in these days of multi gig drives).
You sure?? it sounds unlikely to me, off the top of my head: user files would
seem to be the same whether they are in a separate account or not, and user
settings wouldn't really seem to be that much extra, would they?? Just some
text files for "user preferences", history, favorites, etc.?
Dan
>
> Chris
>
>
> ===================================================================================
> There is a train of thought that a generalist knows a little about a lot of
> things,
> and that a specialist knows a lot about very little.
> If you took this to the extreme, you could become so specialised so as to know
> everything there was to know about nothing.
>
> ===================================================================================
>
> <a href="http://euallegro.wikispaces.com">http://euallegro.wikispaces.com</a>
> <a
> href="http://members.aol.com/chriscrylex/euphoria.htm">http://members.aol.com/chriscrylex/euphoria.htm</a>
> <a href="http://uboard.proboards32.com/">http://uboard.proboards32.com/</a>
> <a
> href="http://members.aol.com/chriscrylex/EUSQLite/eusql.html">http://members.aol.com/chriscrylex/EUSQLite/eusql.html</a>
7. Re: OT: Win XP admin by #%@ DEFAULT!
Dan Moyer wrote:
>
> Chris Burch wrote:
> >
> > Hi
> >
> > I run as admin too - everyone else in the family uses that too - I decided
> > that separate accounts for everyone in the family would lead to too many
> > IT support issues, and that it was less hassle just to anti virus, anti
> > trojan,
> > firewall, and monitor my kids MSN ing. I haven't had any probs to date with
> > malware.
>
> So maybe my concern is much ado about nothing?
>
> >Plus, a separate account for everyone uses a horrendous amount of hard
> > drive space (even in these days of multi gig drives).
>
> You sure?? it sounds unlikely to me, off the top of my head: user files would
> seem to be the same whether they are in a separate account or not, and user
> settings wouldn't really seem to be that much extra, would they?? Just some
> text files for "user preferences", history, favorites, etc.?
Pretty much. Try it, and see, you can always delete the account afterwards,
and then manually delete what it leaves behind. Plus there's all the
shenanigans when someone wants to add a program, or even save a game! (that
was a fun one to try and resolve, until I realised what was going on). And
do you have any idea how much history one user can create!
Chris
>
> Dan
>
> >
> > Chris
> >
> >
> > ===================================================================================
> > There is a train of thought that a generalist knows a little about a lot of
> > things,
> > and that a specialist knows a lot about very little.
> > If you took this to the extreme, you could become so specialised so as to
> > know
> > everything there was to know about nothing.
> >
> > ===================================================================================
> >
> > <a
> > href="http://euallegro.wikispaces.com">http://euallegro.wikispaces.com</a>
> > <a
> > href="http://members.aol.com/chriscrylex/euphoria.htm">http://members.aol.com/chriscrylex/euphoria.htm</a>
> > <a href="http://uboard.proboards32.com/">http://uboard.proboards32.com/</a>
> > <a
> > href="http://members.aol.com/chriscrylex/EUSQLite/eusql.html">http://members.aol.com/chriscrylex/EUSQLite/eusql.html</a>
8. Re: OT: Win XP admin by #%@ DEFAULT!
ChrisBurch2 wrote:
>
> Dan Moyer wrote:
> >
> > Chris Burch wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi
> > >
> > > I run as admin too - everyone else in the family uses that too - I decided
> > > that separate accounts for everyone in the family would lead to too many
> > > IT support issues, and that it was less hassle just to anti virus, anti
> > > trojan,
> > > firewall, and monitor my kids MSN ing. I haven't had any probs to date
> > > with
> > > malware.
> >
> > So maybe my concern is much ado about nothing?
> >
> > >Plus, a separate account for everyone uses a horrendous amount of hard
> > > drive space (even in these days of multi gig drives).
> >
> > You sure?? it sounds unlikely to me, off the top of my head: user files
> > would
> > seem to be the same whether they are in a separate account or not, and user
> > settings wouldn't really seem to be that much extra, would they?? Just some
> > text files for "user preferences", history, favorites, etc.?
>
> Pretty much. Try it, and see, you can always delete the account afterwards,
> and then manually delete what it leaves behind. Plus there's all the
> shenanigans when someone wants to add a program, or even save a game! (that
> was a fun one to try and resolve, until I realised what was going on). And
> do you have any idea how much history one user can create!
Yep, that's why I'm wondering if there's a way to *easily/quickly* copy all
such history/favorites/etc from admin to user, sigh.
But it sounds like you "shouldn't" have had trouble *saving* a game, I gotta
assume (!) that people who are set up as "users, not admin" can run, say, a
Word Processor, and SAVE documents created therein, right??
Dan
9. Re: OT: Win XP admin by #%@ DEFAULT!
Dan Moyer wrote:
>
> Yep, that's why I'm wondering if there's a way to *easily/quickly* copy all
> such history/favorites/etc from admin to user, sigh.
I don't use IE, but it's really easy with firefox. The info is in:
\Documents and Settings\%user%\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
It even keeps all of your extensions.
> But it sounds like you "shouldn't" have had trouble *saving* a game, I gotta
> assume (!) that people who are set up as "users, not admin" can run, say, a
> Word Processor, and SAVE documents created therein, right??
The problem is that the programmers didn't consider that there are some
areas where limited user accounts aren't supposed to write anything.
For instance, they're restricted from \Program Files\* to disallow
installation and corruption of applications.
However, many programmers save their data there instead of within the
user's "Documents and Settings" directory, which is the correct way
to do this. Some games don't really allow you to choose the directory,
and if they picked a subdirectory from where the game binaries are
installed (i.e., within "Program Files") then non-admin users can't
save.
If you were in some *nix variant, it'd be like trying to save your
word processing documents in /usr/bin instead of your home directory.
Likewise, you wouldn't (would you!?) want to save your documents in
\Windows\System32, right?
Matt
10. Re: OT: Win XP admin by #%@ DEFAULT!
Chris Burch wrote:
>
> Hi
>
> I run as admin too - everyone else in the family uses that too - I decided
> that separate accounts for everyone in the family would lead to too many
> IT support issues, and that it was less hassle just to anti virus, anti
> trojan,
> firewall, and monitor my kids MSN ing. I haven't had any probs to date with
> malware. Plus, a separate account for everyone uses a horrendous amount of
> hard
> drive space (even in these days of multi gig drives).
>
> Chris
>
>
> ===================================================================================
> There is a train of thought that a generalist knows a little about a lot of
> things,
> and that a specialist knows a lot about very little.
> If you took this to the extreme, you could become so specialised so as to know
> everything there was to know about nothing.
>
> ===================================================================================
>
> <a href="http://euallegro.wikispaces.com">http://euallegro.wikispaces.com</a>
> <a
> href="http://members.aol.com/chriscrylex/euphoria.htm">http://members.aol.com/chriscrylex/euphoria.htm</a>
> <a href="http://uboard.proboards32.com/">http://uboard.proboards32.com/</a>
> <a
> href="http://members.aol.com/chriscrylex/EUSQLite/eusql.html">http://members.aol.com/chriscrylex/EUSQLite/eusql.html</a>
I used to have one admin account on my two Windows computers with regular user
accounts for myself and other family members. However regular user accounts are
very crippled with regards to installing and running certain software and
everyone needed to log into that admin account for almost anything -- even
installing a browser plugin.
I think XP Home is probably more crippled than XP Pro when it comes to this,
though. XP Pro has finer grained security management. It's still probably broken
though.
The last time I reinstalled Windows on both machines I just left regular users
as admin (the default) and make sure I'm running firewall/virus scanner.
--
"Any programming problem can be solved by adding a level of indirection."
--anonymous
"Any performance problem can be solved by removing a level of indirection."
--M. Haertel
"Premature optimization is the root of all evil in programming."
--C.A.R. Hoare
j.
11. Re: OT: Win XP admin by #%@ DEFAULT!
- Posted by jacques deschênes <desja at globetrotter.net>
Mar 19, 2007
-
Last edited Mar 20, 2007
Hi Don,
With windows xp its very easy to copy your profile from one account to another.
There is tool for it.
Use the files and settings transfert wizard
1) login as admin
2) goto start - programs -accessories - system tools - files and settings
transfert wizard
3) select old computer radio button (on second page)
4) save your settings in a file.
The wizard will create a file with all your settings. Ensure all users have
reading access to that file by placing it the commun share folder.
5) login now with your new account
6) restart the transfert wizard again but that time select new computer radio
button.
7) follow the instructions and select the previously created file.
concerning windows xp accounts.
Personnaly I always run in a restricted account for security reason.
I only logon as administrator when necessary.
concerning multi-account
That true that each account take disk space and the internet explorer cache
being seperate for each account it can take a big amount of disk space. But
windows as another nice wizard that the administrator can run on regular basis to
cleanup unsused files. including internet explorer cache.
It just need a little administrative discipline.
regards,
Jacques Deschênes
12. Re: OT: Win XP admin by #%@ DEFAULT!
jacques deschênes wrote:
>
> Hi Don,
> With windows xp its very easy to copy your profile from one account to
> another.
> There is tool for it.
> Use the files and settings transfert wizard
> 1) login as admin
> 2) goto start - programs -accessories - system tools - files and settings
> transfert
> wizard
> 3) select old computer radio button (on second page)
> 4) save your settings in a file.
>
> The wizard will create a file with all your settings. Ensure all users have
> reading access to that file by placing it the commun share folder.
>
> 5) login now with your new account
> 6) restart the transfert wizard again but that time select new computer radio
> button.
> 7) follow the instructions and select the previously created file.
>
> concerning windows xp accounts.
> Personnaly I always run in a restricted account for security reason.
> I only logon as administrator when necessary.
>
> concerning multi-account
> That true that each account take disk space and the internet explorer cache
> being seperate for each account it can take a big amount of disk space. But
> windows as another nice wizard that the administrator can run on regular basis
> to cleanup unsused files. including internet explorer cache.
> It just need a little administrative discipline.
>
> regards,
> Jacques Deschênes
Jacques,
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
That's *exactly* the information I was looking for, on both counts,
and clearly described!
Dan
