As you have seen by now, Windows Vista is a multiuser operating system. To help you keep each user’s files and settings separate, you should create a separate user account for each person who regularly uses the computer. This article shows you manage users and accounts. First, it explains what user accounts are and what they’re for. Then it details the three different types of user account that Windows Vista supports, together with their capabilities and limitations. After that, it tells you how to create, delete, and modify user accounts; how to require passwords for them; and how to make Windows automatically log on a particular account at startup. You’ll also learn how to use Windows Vista’s new Parental Control features to limit what users can do. If you’re the only person who ever uses your computer, you hardly need to worry about user accounts. But if you share your computer with anybody else, you should use user accounts to the fullest extent, because they offer great benefits and require minimal setup and administration. Read on.

What Are User Accounts and What Are They For?

A user account is a group of settings that lets you tailor the Windows environment to each regular user. By using user accounts, you can let each user set different preferences on the computer, so that each user can maintain a custom Desktop that provides the look they like and the shortcuts and information they need. Each user can also keep separate favorites and histories in Internet Explorer. Article 2 discusses Internet Explorer’s History and Favorites features. Each user can protect their user account with a password if they choose, and they can choose to share folders with other users via the network. By using accounts effectively and setting passwords, you can control access to your computer, and you can allow different privileges to different users. For example, you could prevent the less responsible members of the household from accessing critical files by storing them in secure folders. User accounts are particularly useful when your computer is networked including always-on connections to the Internet. Each user account is identified by a username that Windows uses to manage it. The account has a full-name field that typically contains the full name of the user which appears on the Welcome screen and at the top of the Start menu and a comment field that can be used for storing a comment about the user. Each user account has an account type that defines its permissions and a set of folders in which the user’s details and preferences are stored.

Understanding the Three Types of User Accounts and User Profiles

Windows Vista lets you use three types of user accounts: Administrator, Standard, and Guest. The following sections discuss what each account can do and which type of account is suitable for which type of user.

Administrator Accounts

Administrator accounts are intended for power users who administer the computer. An Administrator account can perform just about any action on the computer, including installing programs and hardware on the computer and creating, modifying, and deleting user accounts. By default, an Administrator account can access all the files on the computer. When you first set up Windows Vista, the first account you create is an Administrator account. After that, you can create Administrator accounts and Standard accounts as needed.

Standard Accounts

A Standard account can take any action needed for day-to-day work or play but cannot configure computerwide settings without providing the password for an Administrator account. A Standard user can:

• Change their picture, Desktop background, or screen saver.

• Change their password, or remove their password so that they don’t need to enter a password to log on to Windows.

• Create, edit, and delete their own files. A Standard user cannot:

• Read other users’ files that aren’t explicitly shared with the Standard user.

• Install most hardware except for reinserting Plug and Play hardware that has already been installed on the computer.

• Install or remove most programs.

• Create, modify, or delete user accounts.

• Log off another user who’s locked the computer.

Good Security Practices Versus Reality

Microsoft recommends that everyone who has Windows Vista should log on as a Standard user for normal use and use an Administrator account only on those supposedly rare occasions when they actually need to install hardware or software, set up users, or otherwise configure the computer in ways a Standard user cannot. By not using an Administrator account all the time, you get the greatest possible protection from the User Account Control feature and Windows Vista’s other security mechanisms: Each time Windows receives a request to run a potentially sensitive program, it double-checks that you’re the one who issued the request rather than malware issuing it in your name.

If you’re used to logging on to Windows XP as a Computer Administrator user as Windows XP called Administrator users, or you’re used to using Windows 98/Me in which every user had full privileges, you’ll probably find User Account Control irritating at first even if you log on as an Administrator user. Even so, create a Standard account for your day-to-day work and try using it. Chances are, you’ll get used to working with reduced privileges and authenticating yourself to User Account Control when you do need to configure the computer.

The Guest Account

The Guest account is a special account for use by guests - either literally guests of your household or company, or figuratively in the sense that the user will need to use the computer only briefly. For longer-term use, create a Standard account for the user so that they can maintain their preferred settings. You can’t require a password for the Guest account. That’s to prevent one guest from locking out another guest. And you can have only one Guest account on an installation of Windows, so the account needs to be shared among guests. You can’t create or delete the Guest account, but you can turn it off and on. For instructions, see the section “Turning On and Off the Guest Account,” later in this article. By default, the Guest account is off until you turn it on. The Guest account cannot access password-protected folders. It can change only supposedly harmless settings. For example, the Guest account can change screen resolution and color schemes, but the only user-account option it can change is the picture displayed for Guest.

All Users Share the Same Screen Resolution

Because Windows Vista always uses Fast User Switching explained in Article 1, each user has to use the same screen resolution. So does the Welcome screen.

If one of the other users of your computer changes the resolution, you’ll find the Welcome screen and your user session using the new resolution. When you change the resolution back to your preferred setting, the resolution changes for all other users as well.

Understanding User Profiles

Information for each user account is kept in what Microsoft calls the user profile, which is stored in the user’s folder under the \Documents and Settings\ folder. This information includes the contents of your Start menu and Desktop, information about your network settings and printers, and so on. To move a user profile from one computer to another, use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard, discussed in Appendix B. You may sometimes need to copy a user profile - for example, so that you have a backup of it for safekeeping. You can copy a user profile only for a user who is not logged on even in a disconnected session. To copy a user profile, follow these steps:

1. Press Windows Key+Break. Windows displays the System window in Control Panel.

2. Click the Advanced System Settings link in the left panel, and then authenticate yourself to User Account Control. Windows displays the System Properties dialog box.

3. Click the Advanced tab. Windows displays the Advanced page.

4. In the User Profiles group box, click the Settings button. Windows displays the User Profiles dialog box

5. Click the Copy To button. Windows displays the Copy To dialog box, as shown here.

6.In the Copy Profile To text box, type the folder to which you want to copy the profile. Use a folder that has no contents, as Windows will overwrite any contents. Alternatively, click the Browse button, use the Browse for Folder dialog box to select the folder, and then click the OK button.

7. Click the OK button. Windows copies the user profile.

Creating a User Account

When you first install Windows Vista, the OS makes you create a single Administrator account, which it encourages you to protect with a password. Once you’ve logged on to that account, you can create such other accounts as needed. Windows provides two tools for working with user accounts: the User Accounts window in Control Panel which you’ll meet in this section and the User Accounts dialog box which you’ll meet later in this article. The User Accounts dialog box is also known as the Advanced User Accounts Control Panel. To create a user account, log on as an Administrator user and take the following steps:

1. Choose Start Control Panel. Windows displays Control Panel.

2. If Control Panel is in Classic view, click the Control Panel Home link to switch to Control Panel Home view.

3. In the User Accounts and Family Safety list, click the Add or Remove User Accounts link, and then authenticate yourself to User Account Control. Windows displays the Manage Accounts window .

4. Click the Create a New Account link. Windows displays the first Create New Account screen .

5.Type a name for the account:

• Usernames can be up to 20 characters long and are not case sensitive.

• Windows automatically assigns the username you enter as the full name for the user account. You can change this, and add a comment to the user account, by using the User Accounts dialog box discussed later in this article.

• Names can contain letters, numbers, and most symbols. They cannot contain any of these characters: *, ?, +, =, , comma, : colon, ; semicolon, <, >, | pipe character, “ double quotation marks, [, ], /, or \.

• Names can start with letters, numbers, or symbols. Names can even consist of nothing but underscores.

• It can be amusing to create idiosyncratic names, but consider using a naming convention if you’re creating more than a few user accounts and want to keep things formal and organized.

6. By default, Windows selects the Standard User option button. Select the Administrator option button if you want the account to be an Administrator instead.

7. Click the Create Account button. Windows creates the account, assigns it a picture at random, and displays the User Accounts screen again, with the new user listed. As soon as you’ve created a new account, you should assign a password to it. See “Requiring a Password for an Account,” later in this article, for instructions.

Deleting a User Account

You may need to delete a user account - for example, if someone who has been using the computer gets a computer of their own. Deleting the user account is easy, but you need to decide whether to keep the user’s Desktop configuration files and their Documents folder. To delete a user account, log on as an Administrator user and take the following steps:

1. Check whether the user is logged on to the computer in a disconnected session and, if so, log them off:

• Right-click the notification area, and then choose Task Manager from the shortcut menu. Windows displays Task Manager.

• Click the Users tab. Windows displays the Users page.

• If the user appears in the list, select their entry, and then click the Logoff button. Windows displays a Windows Task Manager dialog box warning you that the user might lose unsaved data.

• Click the Log Off User button.

2. Choose Start Control Panel. Windows displays Control Panel.

3. If Control Panel is in Classic view, click the Control Panel Home link to switch to Control Panel Home view.

4. In the User Accounts and Family Safety list, click the Add or Remove User Accounts link, and then authenticate yourself to User Account Control. Windows displays the Manage Accounts window.

5. Click the user’s icon. Windows displays the Change an Account window .

6. Click the Delete the Account link. Windows displays the Do You Want to Keep Username’s Files? window where Username is the user’s name.

7.Click the Keep Files button or the Delete Files button as appropriate. Windows displays the Are You Sure You Want to Delete Username’s Account? window to make sure you’ve thought about what you’re doing.

8. Click the Delete Account button if you’re sure you want to proceed. Windows deletes the account and displays the Manage Accounts window again.