User accounts on windows

[bekib86]

Hi whats the point in having my own user account on windows with a password on if other people can log into the main account and from the control pannel remove my password?! is there any way around this, thanks x

[squarebear]

If you are all set up as administrators then there is no point having separate user accounts.

[bekib86]

i dont mind having mine as a standard account but whats the point if the administrator can go into their account and delete my password and then get in mine? dont understand it. surely i must be able to stop this happening? x

[squarebear]

The administrator is in charge of the machine and so can do anything. Is this a work's computer?

You can only stop it by removing the user's administrator rights.

[bekib86]

no its a home computer x

[squarebear]

Who is the administrator? They have rights to alter anything on the PC, so say you forgot your password, the administrator could change it.

[bekib86]

i can get into both as no password on admin. we've all been using same account but made my own last night with password then shocked to find it had been deleted today! seems silly to put a password that can be deleted on lol x

[hc4361]

The point of having a user account is that the account can be limited and restricted by the administrator.
You can be stopped from installing programs, removing programs and your access to the administrator's files can be blocked.
It is for the admin's advantage, not yours.

[squarebear]

No password on administrator is pretty stupid, as anyone who steals your PC will have a nice easy task of passing it on. Also having an administrator account where everyone can access it is also rather foolish, as someone could wreck the PC by accident and blame other people.

[ChuckFickens]

It's not silly.

What's silly is it sounds like you have no password for the administrator account.

Create a password for the main administrator account and make sure you don't/can't forget it, then create a second user account with administrator rights which you use for performing admin tasks on the computer so you don't have to use the main administrator account other than in emergencies, then finally have your everyday account set as a limited account so you, and more importantly software running under your account doesn't have full admin access to the machine.

[bekib86]

ok so what if im an admin too? i just want privacy and security on my account thats all, not so its free for anyone to go snooping around in. like pixi said theres nothing there but its not the point, its my files, pics, docs etc x

[squarebear]

If you are all admins, you can all do anything.

[bekib86]

it is not my computer, if it was there would be a password, no doubt as i know what your saying. but family computer and if i put a password on and explained why and gave it them id still be in wrong so i leave it x

[ChuckFickens]

Well if it's not your computer than the owner of the computer should (quite rightly) be able to access all your files as they should have access to the administrator account.

If you don't want other people accessing your files then you buy your own computer and make sure all the user accounts are password protected on that.

[hc4361]

If you simply want to keep documents such as word documents and spreadsheets private, use a web based system such as google docs. You MUST have your password to access them and they can be accessed from any computer that is online.

[RAV1D]

Just get your own computer and take out its hard drive when your not there then no one can use it!

[hc4361]

I've been with Virgin since it was Telewest , at least 8 years and broadband has been down only once, for 10 hours, and I was given a £20 refund.
I like Virgin.