user accounts

[alex_slu_wi]

I have a multi user account pc running XP professional SP2. All accts have
administrator status but my personal account is the only one password
protected. On startup instead of the welcome screen displaying all user
accts, the computer goes straight to my acct. To get back to welcome screen I
have to log out or switch user. How do i fix as i have folders i want to keep
private?

 

[Jan Spooren]

Hi Alex,

>I have a multi user account pc running XP professional SP2. All accts have
> administrator status but my personal account is the only one password
> protected. On startup instead of the welcome screen displaying all user
> accts, the computer goes straight to my acct. To get back to welcome
> screen I
> have to log out or switch user. How do i fix as i have folders i want to
> keep
> private?

Start with taking away administrator rights for all user accounts, except
for one, which has a password and which you don't use for daily use.
If users have administrator rights, they can take ownership of any file and
therefor always access your files. It is also _not_ a good idea to run as
administrator: Typically, it's unnecessary and it will make your computer
much more vulnerable to spyware, addware, viruses, troyans, ...

Then, check that the file system in use is NTFS. You can do this by
right-clicking on the drive letter in Windows Explorer, and selecting
'Properties'. In the properties window, you should see 'File System: NTFS'.
If your file system is FAT or FAT32, convert it to NTFS using the command
line tool 'convert.exe'.

Next, go to the folder that you want to keep private, right-click the
folder, and select properties. Go to the Security tab, click 'Advanced' you
should see a new dialog box go to the Owner tab, select your username under
'change owner to:' and click OK. This will make you the owner of the
folder.

Then, make sure in the Security tab of the folder properties that only
SYSTEM, Administrators and your user account have Full Control. Make sure
that the other users are not in the list. It might be that the other users
are in the list, because they inherit rights from parent folders to which
they do have access. In that case, you will have to click the Advanced
button again, go to the Permissions tab and untick the tickbox that allows
this folder to receive inherited rights.

Always make sure you test the new security settings using another user
account. Security access control lists in NTFS can be tricky especially if
you start using the 'deny' access control entries and it might lead to (at
first sight) unexpected behavior. Alternatively, you can use the 'Effective
Permissions' tab in the dialog box you get when clicking on 'Advanced...' in
the Security tab.

Cheers,
Jan.

 

[alex_slu_wi]

"Jan Spooren" wrote:

> Hi Alex,
>
> >I have a multi user account pc running XP professional SP2. All accts have
> > administrator status but my personal account is the only one password
> > protected. On startup instead of the welcome screen displaying all user
> > accts, the computer goes straight to my acct. To get back to welcome
> > screen I
> > have to log out or switch user. How do i fix as i have folders i want to
> > keep
> > private?
>
> Start with taking away administrator rights for all user accounts, except
> for one, which has a password and which you don't use for daily use.
> If users have administrator rights, they can take ownership of any file and
> therefor always access your files. It is also _not_ a good idea to run as
> administrator: Typically, it's unnecessary and it will make your computer
> much more vulnerable to spyware, addware, viruses, troyans, ...
>
> Then, check that the file system in use is NTFS. You can do this by
> right-clicking on the drive letter in Windows Explorer, and selecting
> 'Properties'. In the properties window, you should see 'File System: NTFS'.
> If your file system is FAT or FAT32, convert it to NTFS using the command
> line tool 'convert.exe'.
>
> Next, go to the folder that you want to keep private, right-click the
> folder, and select properties. Go to the Security tab, click 'Advanced' you
> should see a new dialog box go to the Owner tab, select your username under
> 'change owner to:' and click OK. This will make you the owner of the
> folder.
>
> Then, make sure in the Security tab of the folder properties that only
> SYSTEM, Administrators and your user account have Full Control. Make sure
> that the other users are not in the list. It might be that the other users
> are in the list, because they inherit rights from parent folders to which
> they do have access. In that case, you will have to click the Advanced
> button again, go to the Permissions tab and untick the tickbox that allows
> this folder to receive inherited rights.
>
> Always make sure you test the new security settings using another user
> account. Security access control lists in NTFS can be tricky especially if
> you start using the 'deny' access control entries and it might lead to (at
> first sight) unexpected behavior. Alternatively, you can use the 'Effective
> Permissions' tab in the dialog box you get when clicking on 'Advanced...' in
> the Security tab.
>
> Cheers,
> Jan.
>
>
> This has not solved the problem as i have taken ownership of the necessary folders. If i could get windows to start with the welcome screen there is no problem since my acct is password protected, however what happens is that whoever starts the pc it logs straight into my acct, bypassing the welcome screen and the user accts. It means that whoever starts pc is into my acct so has access to all files since my acct has ownership of those files. If i start i log out before coming off pc and it then goes to user accts screen, so anyone wanting to use cannot get into my acct without password. What i need is to stop PC logging straight into my acct at start up and stop at welcome screen showing user accts. By the way i have checked the option to have pc start with welcome screen but this makes no difference.

 

[Malke]

alex_slu_wi wrote:
> I have a multi user account pc running XP professional SP2. All accts have
> administrator status but my personal account is the only one password
> protected. On startup instead of the welcome screen displaying all user
> accts, the computer goes straight to my acct. To get back to welcome screen I
> have to log out or switch user. How do i fix as i have folders i want to keep
> private?

Someone (you?) set the computer to automatically log into your user
account. Reverse this either with control userpasswords2 (doing the
reverse, obviously) or with the free TweakUI Power Toy.

Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User