Guest Birdman Posted July 8, 2007 Posted July 8, 2007 Using windows me. I've put my name in as a new user and on startup the computer correctly asks me for my password. And when the password is entered, the computer correctly finishes booting up. The problem is, if I click on cancel when prompted for the password, the computer boots up with, I assume, me as a guest, and I still have full access to the computer. And this leaves me wondering what's the purpose of setting a username and password. What I'd like to do is set a global password. When the computer boots up it would say something like "What's the password?" If the password is not given the computer is not accessable. Or another idea is if the username and password is not given then certain parts of the computer are not accessable. Or in other words, how do the wife and I keep our 15 year old daughter (and her friends) out of our personal files without unplugging the computer and putting it in a 100 plus pound safe? Help! Help! Quote
Guest Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM Posted July 8, 2007 Posted July 8, 2007 "Birdman" <Birdman@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:8D792AB2-0645-4E16-B1EB-95356DBA1D62@microsoft.com... > Using windows me. I've put my name in as a new user and on startup the > computer correctly asks me for my password. And when the password is > entered, the computer correctly finishes booting up. > > The problem is, if I click on cancel when prompted for the password, the > computer boots up with, I assume, me as a guest, and I still have full > access > to the computer. > > And this leaves me wondering what's the purpose of setting a username and > password. > > What I'd like to do is set a global password. When the computer boots up > it > would say something like "What's the password?" If the password is not > given > the computer is not accessable. > > Or another idea is if the username and password is not given then certain > parts of the computer are not accessable. > > Or in other words, how do the wife and I keep our 15 year old daughter > (and > her friends) out of our personal files without unplugging the computer and > putting it in a 100 plus pound safe? > > Help! Help! > > Not much in Windows ME. I means a lot more in later editions of Windows with NTFS formatted hard drives. -- Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM Do not send mail. Quote
Guest Joan Archer Posted July 8, 2007 Posted July 8, 2007 As you have found WinME was never made to be as secure as later versions of Windows and I think the only way to achieve what you want would be to set a BIOS password if your machine is capable of it, that way it would need the password before the OS started to load but you would have to be careful not to lose it or you could find yourself locked out of your machine. If you need help with WinME problems why not visit microsoft.public.windowsme.general where you will get all the help you need from experts with that OS. Joan Birdman wrote: > Using windows me. I've put my name in as a new user and on startup > the computer correctly asks me for my password. And when the > password is entered, the computer correctly finishes booting up. > > The problem is, if I click on cancel when prompted for the password, > the computer boots up with, I assume, me as a guest, and I still have > full access to the computer. > > And this leaves me wondering what's the purpose of setting a username > and password. > > What I'd like to do is set a global password. When the computer > boots up it would say something like "What's the password?" If the > password is not given the computer is not accessable. > > Or another idea is if the username and password is not given then > certain parts of the computer are not accessable. > > Or in other words, how do the wife and I keep our 15 year old > daughter (and her friends) out of our personal files without > unplugging the computer and putting it in a 100 plus pound safe? > > Help! Help! Quote
Guest Roger Abell [MVP] Posted July 8, 2007 Posted July 8, 2007 The truth is that Windows ME (and Win9x) have no security model built into them whatsoever. You are wanting to do things that those DOS based operating systems were not designed to support. For example, as you noticed, the "password" is actually just like sugar frosting put on a cake to make the junk inside seem good. It is not really protecting anything at all. Probably the best you can do if you are going to stay at WinMe is to get something that gives you the ability to encrypt the files over which you have concern. Roger "Birdman" <Birdman@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:8D792AB2-0645-4E16-B1EB-95356DBA1D62@microsoft.com... > Using windows me. I've put my name in as a new user and on startup the > computer correctly asks me for my password. And when the password is > entered, the computer correctly finishes booting up. > > The problem is, if I click on cancel when prompted for the password, the > computer boots up with, I assume, me as a guest, and I still have full > access > to the computer. > > And this leaves me wondering what's the purpose of setting a username and > password. > > What I'd like to do is set a global password. When the computer boots up > it > would say something like "What's the password?" If the password is not > given > the computer is not accessable. > > Or another idea is if the username and password is not given then certain > parts of the computer are not accessable. > > Or in other words, how do the wife and I keep our 15 year old daughter > (and > her friends) out of our personal files without unplugging the computer and > putting it in a 100 plus pound safe? > > Help! Help! > > Quote
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