The best way to handle user accounts is for one person to play the role of administrator, even if that person isn’t a professional. In a home environment, it would most likely be a parent who needs to define parental controls. It’s best to log in to a user account that already has administrative privileges to get started. If you only have one user account, or are taken straight to the desktop at startup, then that account probably has administrative privileges. To create a new user account, click Manage another account. If you’re in an administrative account, you’ll have to click the Continue button to proceed. If you’re in a standard account on a computer that already has a password-protected administrative account, you’ll have to enter the password for the Administrator account. Or, if the administrative account doesn’t have a password, press Enter to leave the password box empty. You end up in the Manage Accounts page. There you see an icon for every user account on your system. You can also tell the type of each account.

Creating a user account Creating a new user account is easy. Ideally, you want one password-protected user account. Then you want one standard account for your day-to-day computing, plus one standard account for every other person who will use your computer. Keep in mind that each user account has its own collection of files. If you’ve been using your administrative account for a while, you may not want to create a new standard account from scratch. Better to create a new administrative account from scratch, then change your current account from an administrative account to a standard account. That way you won’t have to move files from your current account to the new account. To create a new user account, click Create a new account. Type in a name for the user account. If you’re creating a new administrative account, consider naming it Admin or something like that. You can’t use the name Administrator because that name is already taken by the built-in administrative account. If you’re creating a new standard account for yourself or a family member, use the person’s first name as the account name. After you’ve typed the account name, choose Standard user to create a standard user account. Or choose Administrator to create a user account that has administrative privileges. Then click Create Account to create the user account. You’re returned to the previous Manage User Accounts page where you see that the new user account has been added to the system. You can repeat the process to create as many user accounts as you wish.

Changing a user account type You can change an Administrator account to a standard account, or vice versa, from the main user accounts page. For example, if you’ve been using an administrative account for your day-to-day computing since buying your computer, you might want to change it to a standard account for the added security a standard account provides. At least one user account must have administrative privileges, so you can only do this if there is at least one other user account on the system that has administrative privileges. To change an account’s type, click the account icon or name in the Manage Accounts page. First you’re taken to the Change an Account page. As you can see, that page lets you change the account in a number of ways, or even delete the account. Click Change the account type to change the account from an administrative account to a standard account, or vice versa. To change the account type, click Change the account type. You’re taken to the Change Account Type page. Click the type of account you want this user account to be, and then click Change Account Type.

Password-protecting an account In Windows Vista If you share your computer with other people, chances are you’ll want to keep some people out of the Administrator account. Likewise, you’ll want to keep some users from having administrative privileges. This is especially important with parental controls. If the administrative account isn’t password-protected, then it won’t take long for the kids to figure out how to bypass any controls you impose. Password-protecting an account is easy enough. Just remember, you do not want to forget the password you impose. Otherwise, nobody will have administrative privileges, and that will cause a world of headaches. So think up a good password and password hint. And write the password down on a piece of paper before you password-protect the account. To password-protect a user account, get to the main page for the user account. For instance, if you’re in the Manage Accounts page, click the user account you want to password-protect. Then click Create a password.  If you’ve been using the account for a while without a password, heed the warnings. If it’s a brand-new account, then you don’t have anything to worry about. To password-protect the account, type your password in the New Password box. Then press Tab or click the second box and type the same password again. You won’t see the characters you type, just a placeholder for each character. Typing passwords always works that way to prevent shoulder surfing. Shoulder surfing is a simple technique for discovering someone’s password just by watching over their shoulder as they type it on the screen. Then type in your password hint. The hint should be something that reminds you of the forgotten password, but not a dead giveaway to someone trying to break into the account. Click Create Password after you’ve filled in all the blanks. If you see a message indicating that your passwords don’t match, you’ll have to retype both passwords. Make sure you type the password exactly as you wrote it down in both boxes. Then click the Change Password button again. You’ll be taken back to the main page for the user account when you’ve successfully entered the password in both boxes and provided a password hint. You can repeat the process to password-protect as many accounts as you wish. If you’re creating user accounts for people other than yourself, it’s best not to password-protect their accounts. Let those other users decide for themselves whether or not they want to password-protect their accounts. And let them create and manage their own passwords.

Changing the account picture Every user account has an associated picture. The picture is like an icon, giving you a quick visual reference without having to read the name. The picture you choose can be any one of several built-in pictures, or it can be a picture of your own choosing. If you decide to use your own picture, try to avoid using one that comes straight from a digital camera. The file size on such pictures is really too large for a user account picture. You want the picture you choose to be perfectly square so it doesn’t get distorted. Your best bet would be to crop out a perfect square from a photo, and size it to about 100 x 100 pixels. The picture you choose must be the JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, or PNG file type.

Enabling or disabling the Guest account The Guest account is for anybody who might need to use your computer on a temporary basis. For example, with a home computer, you might set up a Guest account for a temporary house guest. Then let that person use the Guest account to check their e-mail, browse the Web, and such. The Guest account has very limited privileges, so you don’t have to worry about them messing things up while using your computer. The Guest account is turned off by default. You can keep it that way until there’s actually a need for it. To activate the Guest account, go to the Manage Accounts page and click the Guest account icon. Then choose Turn On. Likewise, should you ever need to disable the Guest account in the future, click its icon on the Manage Accounts page, then click Turn off the guest account.

Navigating through user account pages In Windows Vista As you can see, it’s pretty easy to create and manage user accounts. It’s largely just a matter of choosing options and reading text that’s right on the screen. Remember, any blue text you see is a link, meaning you can click it. You can use the Back and Forward buttons to get around from page to page. On most pages you can click the Manage another account link to get to the Manage Accounts page. You can also use the Address bar at the top of the window to get around. Click any name in the Address bar to jump to that page. Or click the arrow between any two page names, or to the left of the page names to get to other pages.

Creating a Password Reset Disk A password reset disk is an important part of any password-protected PC. It’s the only method of password recovery that allows you to retain all data in an account in the event of a forgotten password. Advanced features like EFS encryption, personal certificates, and stored network passwords can only be recovered using a password reset disk. The main trick is to create the password reset disk before you forget the password. You can’t do it after you’ve forgotten the password. Keep that disk in a safe place where you can find it when you need it, but where others can’t find it to gain unauthorized access to the administrative account.

Jump Drive? Memory Card? Huh? Ajump drive (also called a USB flash drive) is a small device that plugs into a USB port on your computer, and looks and acts like a disk drive. A memory card is a storage device commonly used to store pictures in digital cameras. If your computer has slots for such cards, you can slide a card into the slot and treat the card just as you would a floppy disk. To see examples and get an idea of costs, check out some online retailers. For example, you might go to www.tigerdirect.com, www.cdw.com, www.froogle.com, www.newgg.com, www.staples.com, or www.walmart.com. Then search the site for jump drive or memory card reader to view available products. If you’re looking at memory card readers, the kind that plugs into a USB will be the easiest to install.

Your best bet would be to use a floppy disk for the password disk. If your computer doesn’t have a floppy disk drive, you can use a jump drive or memory card instead. However, a memory card will only work if your computer has slots for inserting a memory card. To create a password reset disk, log in to the password-protected administrative account you created. Then insert a blank floppy disk in the floppy drive. Or connect a jump drive to a USB port, or put a spare memory card in a memory card slot. Then get to the main User Accounts page. If you’ve already closed the user account window, Tap the Windows key, type user, and click User Accounts on the Start menu. Or go through the Control Panel (click the Start button, and choose Control Panel  ->  User Accounts and Family Safety  ->  User Accounts). Then follow these steps:

1. In the left column click Create a password reset disk.

2. Read the first page of the wizard that opens and click Next.

3. Choose the drive into which you inserted the floppy, or the drive letter that represents the jump drive or memory card, then click Next.

4. Type the password for the administrative account into which you’re currently logged and click Next.

5. When the progress indicator is finished, click Next, then Finish. Keep the disk (or drive, or card) in a safe place. If you use a jump drive that you also use for other purposes, make sure you don’t erase the userkey.psw file. That’s the file needed for password recovery.

Using the password reset disk If you ever need to use the disk (or drive, or card) to get into the administrative account, first start the computer and click the administrative account for which you created the password reset disk. Take a best guess at the password and press Enter. If the password is rejected, insert the floppy disk, jump drive, or memory card you created as a password reset disk. Wait a few seconds for Windows to recognize and register the item. Then click Reset password under the password hint on the login screen. Follow the instructions presented by the wizard that opens. You won’t be required to remember the original password. Instead you’ll create an entirely new password and hint for the account. Use that new password whenever you log in to the account from that point on.

Cracking into standard user accounts If a standard user forgets their password, you can use an account that has administrative privileges to get the standard user back into their account. If you’re an administrator and just want to see what a standard user is up to, you can use this same technique to remove the password from the account and have full access to its folders. This approach will cause the standard user to lose access to encrypted files and e-mail messages. If the standard user is advanced enough to use those things, better to use a password reset disk to gain access to the account. To remove the password from a standard user account:

1. Log in to a user account that has administrative privileges.

2. Get to the Manage Accounts page (click the Start button and choose Control Panel  ->  Add or Remove User Accounts).

3. Click the password-protected account for which the user has forgotten the password.

4. Click Remove password, then click the Remove Password button. The standard user account will no longer be password-protected. Anybody can log in to that account from the login page just by clicking the user’s account icon.

Deleting User Accounts In Windows Vista An administrator can easily delete user accounts. If nobody has ever used a user account, then deleting the account is no big deal. But if anybody has used the account, there is much to consider before deleting it because when you delete the user account, you also delete all e-mail messages, the e-mail account, and Internet favorites. You could also delete all of that user’s saved files if you’re not careful. Doing this by accident would be a disaster, because there’s no way to undo the deletion. So just to make sure nobody misses this important point, here’s a caution: Deleting a user account can have very serious consequences. Don’t do it unless you fully understand the ramifications. If you want to save the user’s e-mail messages and Internet favorites, export them to that user’s Documents folder first. How you export depends on the programs you use for e-mail and Web browsing. If those programs are Windows Mail and Internet Explorer, you can use the techniques described on our website.

So let’s assume you understand the consequences and have no intention of deleting an account just for the heck of it. Only administrators can delete user accounts. So if you’re in a standard account, you at least need to know the administrative password to delete a user account. You’ll also need to log in to any account except the one you intend to delete. Then:

1. Click the Start button, choose Control Panel, and click Add or remove user accounts.

2. If prompted, enter an administrative password.

3. Click the account you want to delete.

4. Click Delete the account and read what the message is telling. Then click one of the following buttons: - Delete files: Click this button only if you intend to delete everything associated with the account, including all files that the user has created and saved. - Keep files: Click this option to save the user’s files. You will still lose the user’s saved e-mail messages, Internet favorites, and user account.

5. Read the next page to make sure you understand the consequences of your choice. Then click Cancel if you change your mind, or click Delete Account if you’re sure you know what you’re doing. If you choose Delete Account, the user’s account will no longer exist. If you choose Keep Files, the user’s saved files will be in a folder on the desktop. That folder will have the same name as the user account you just deleted. Otherwise, nothing of the user’s account, not even his saved files, will remain. (If you choose Cancel in step 5, the entire account remains intact and unchanged.) If you create a new user account with the same name as the one you just deleted, the new account is still an entirely new account. It will not inherit any files or settings from the account you previously deleted.