Re: Combining User Accts on Vista Home

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance


"Bruce Chambers" <bchambers@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eNyJPRRaJHA.5676@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Anne wrote:


When I bought my HP back in May of 2008, I remember choosing a user name
and I did.

I must have disabled the need to sign in because it has never been
necessary. I simply boot and
I'm automatically in charge.

I just looked under User Accounts in the Control Panel and a picture of a
chessman is there
with my User name and the word Administrator.

From that, I would conclude that I am the Administrator,

This box has been working pretty good since new and I'm wondering why
using myself as
administrator should be disabled.

thank you, anne





Routinely using a computer with administrative privileges is not
without some risk. You will be much more susceptible to some types of
malware, particularly adware and spyware. While using a computer with
limited privileges isn't the cure-all, silver bullet that some claim it to
be, any experienced IT professional will verify that doing so definitely
reduces that amount of damage and depth of penetration by the malware. If
you do happen to get infected/infested while running as an administrator,
the odds are much greater that any malware will be extremely difficult, if
not impossible, to remove with formating the hard drive and starting anew.
The intruding malware will have had the same (administrative) privileges
to all of the files on your hard drive that you do.

A technically competent user who is aware of the risks and knows how
to take proper precautions can usually safely operate with administrative
privileges; I do so myself. But I certainly don't recommend it for the
average computer user.

Further, the built-in Administrator account was never intended to be
used for day-to-day normal use. The standard security practice is to
rename the account, set a strong password on it, and use it only to create
another account for regular use, reserving the Administrator account as a
"back door" in case something corrupts your regular account(s).


Thank you both for your input. It is very much appreciated,

anne


.

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