Windows XP - Page 2

jf-08 · July 14th, 2004, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SweetD

Change your Parents login to admin rights. You might have limited your access when you were setting up the account.

i don't know how I set it up - i'll check it later tonight.

Chaz · July 14th, 2004, 04:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jkf296

i don't know how I set it up - i'll check it later tonight.

It sounds like you had autologon from the start, the first account you made when you set up the computer is your admin or main account. The files and such are under that account name under documents and settings. It may be the Administrator account? If the files are there you can login as that account. You also may be able to copy the old profile to your new account or you could just copy the files, shortcuts, e-mails to the new account and still have the account for the kids.

Good plan by the way, separate accounts in XP can be nice. My son is always turning on pointer trails or some other such thing.

jf-08 · July 15th, 2004, 07:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SirChaz

It sounds like you had autologon from the start, the first account you made when you set up the computer is your admin or main account. The files and such are under that account name under documents and settings. It may be the Administrator account?

Yes - I can find the documents and settings in the appropriate folder.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SirChaz

If the files are there you can login as that account.

For some reason, I cannot. When I go to "Log Off" and then Log back in, it will not give me "Administrator" as an option.

Administrator is the "user profile" that we have been using for the past 3 months before we created "Parents" and "Kids" profiles.

We used to just turn the system on and not log in but I wanted to change the settings.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SirChaz

You also may be able to copy the old profile to your new account or you could just copy the files, shortcuts, e-mails to the new account and still have the account for the kids.

Yes, I can do that. However, every time we access a file, the program used to create that file has to be installed on that profile. We have MS Word, Excel, Power Point, Works, Quicken, Autocad, Media Player, and a bunch of others that would be a real pain for everything to install and tweak the nuances / user settings that we have on the other profile.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SirChaz

Good plan by the way, separate accounts in XP can be nice. My son is always turning on pointer trails or some other such thing.

LOL! Our daughter was real excited because her wall paper is Barbie and screen saver "Bratz". She also has her own "Favorites" list with her Nick Jr., Sesame St, My Little Pony, et al, sites.

It's nice but it seems to be real hassle in fine tuning if you didn't create user profiles from the beginning. We should have done this, but oh well.

Thanks again for the input, Chaz.

Chaz · July 15th, 2004, 10:53 AM

Yea, you can jack with it and try to copy the profile but the best bet maybe to bite the bullet and just set it all up again.

Favorites and documents should not be a problem to copy over.

If you right click on My Computer and choose properties there is a tab for User profiles. (EDIT: it is under advanced tab there is a button for user profile management) You can copy one profile to another but you cannot be logged in as either of those profiles. I have had mixed results doing this.

If I get a chance I will do a couple of tests and get back to you.

Ryanwb · July 15th, 2004, 12:33 PM

Go to settings -> Control Panel -> User Accounts

Uncheck the box that says, "use the welcome screen" reboot.

It will now come up with the CLT+ATL+DEL sign on. Type in "administrator" as the user ID and use the password you set

jw7 · July 15th, 2004, 04:27 PM

Has this been resolved?

Chaz · July 15th, 2004, 04:37 PM

I work with this stuff and profiles are generally a mess. I find them to be a pain because microsoft is not consistant in what is system wide (on all profiles) and what is user specific.

It used to be you could just overwrite the files and you had that profile that you copied there. Now XP has a file protection that prevents this. They put a GUID (like a serial number) to the profile and attempts to overwrite really screw stuff up.

jf-08 · July 15th, 2004, 05:23 PM

Quote:

RyanWB said:

Go to settings -> Control Panel -> User Accounts

Uncheck the box that says, "use the welcome screen" reboot.

It will now come up with the CLT+ATL+DEL sign on. Type in "administrator" as the user ID and use the password you set

ok - thanks ryan
that worked to get me into the Administrator User ID.

When I logged in under it this is what it states under it:

"The administrator account is only visible on the Welcome screen when no other user accounts exist (except for the guest account), or when your computer is started in Safe mode."

Now - I am trying to change the name of the account and set up another account as the administrator account so all of the toilsome tasks can be eliminated. Does anyone know how to do this?

jf-08 · July 15th, 2004, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jkf296

Now - I am trying to change the name of the account and set up another account as the administrator account so all of the toilsome tasks can be eliminated. Does anyone know how to do this?

ugh - i don't think you can do this.

bratwurst · July 15th, 2004, 07:09 PM

Make a new account with the name you want. Then give it local administrator rights.

Now log in as new user account.

Then copy your documents and favorites from the admin account at
(you can also copy your cookies if need be)

c:\documents and settings\administrator\
to
c:\documents and settings\%new username%

At this point since you are using a different account then administrator and have given yourself admin rights, you can turn back on the welcome screen and create more accounts for whoever else you want.

jf-08 · July 16th, 2004, 08:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bratwurst

Make a new account with the name you want. Then give it local administrator rights.

Now log in as new user account.

Then copy your documents and favorites from the admin account at
(you can also copy your cookies if need be)

c:\documents and settings\administrator\
to
c:\documents and settings\%new username%

At this point since you are using a different account then administrator and have given yourself admin rights, you can turn back on the welcome screen and create more accounts for whoever else you want.

I understand that, thanks.

But what's frustrating is that, when you access a file for the 1st time in with new user name, the software program has to install itself for each user.

We use alot of programs and have already "tweaked" each woth personal toolbars, settings, etc.

I just thought that if we could use the old profile by just changing the name of it, then we wouldn't have to do all of that.

Oh well, I guess I can't. No biggie, I'll just create the new user and re-tweak everything.

Thanks alot everybody!