Re: Newbie question about setting up XP - coming from win98se background

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

From: Jim Macklin (p51mustang[threeX12)
Date: 12/18/04 

Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 10:14:18 -0600

What you need to remember about XP is that it is a true
multi-user OS. Unlike W98/ME which did not really work well
with multi-user accounts and provide security and privacy,
XP does, by default prevent one user from accessing the
another users data files (My Documents and email). In W98
just hitting cancel on the user logon, will boot to a
default user account and all files and data is readable.

Windows XP Pro has more levels of user accounts and user
rights control. Using NTFS also improves data security.

When a user creates a file in their account, it is private,
by default, unless the folder is being shared, even then a
file on a shared drive can be encrypted and locked with a
password.

Applications and services may be controlled using XP Pro and
to a lesser extent using XP Home. So you can have accounts
with full access (administrator accounts) and limited
accounts that may have some application unavailable and they
won't be able to change their own permissions.

Each User Account will have a default My Documents folder in
the C: drive. Moving these My Documents folders has the
advantage of isolating the data from a system crash which
could result in data loss if reformatting and reinstallation
was required. Moving the files is essential if the drive
(partition) is small because you need to keep a minimum of
15% free disk space to allow defrag to run.

You can help us with user accounts setup, security and such
by saying exactly what you are trying to setup and for whom.
For instance, You are the administrator and need the default
administrator (which is hidden when you create the first
user account) and you need a user account with admin rights
so you can do required computer maintenance and setup w/o
screwing up the default admin acct. These accounts should
have passwords. Then it is good practice to have a limited
user account for your routine use.

Then you will get to the issue of other users and what they
need and what you want them to be able to do. Do they need
to access the Internet, send a FAX, install programs, do you
want them to have no access to adult sites (your children?)
and what version of XP you have will determine what you can
and cannot do.

BTW, don't snip to much, I don't want to have to go back and
look for your previous posts to see what questions and info
you have previously posted.

Yes, I would certainly switch to the faster drive, you will
notice that things happen 50% faster.

When you install a program, by default it will be useable to
all users ad Windows will put a link to programs in each
users startup and program menus. But as an administrator
you can remove access on a user's account by deleting the
program on that user's account.

In general, programs ARE NOT shared, you have programs
installed, data is shared. 

-- 
Merry Christmas
Have a Safe and Happy New Year
Live Long and Prosper
Jim Macklin
"niteowl" <niteowl@NOniteowlproductionsSPAM.com> wrote in 
message news:7gf8s05m0qqo66i088gefthe4h1b0i94au@4ax.com...
| On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 07:46:12 -0600, "Jim Macklin"
| <p51mustang[threeX12]@xxxhotmail.calm> wrote:
|
| >If you don't move My Documents, for each user from the
| >default C: location, your small 6 GB C: drive will 
fill-up
| >and you will not be able to defrag or handle Windows 
updates
| >due to lack of free space for temp files.
|
| okay, that I understand.
|
| >Windows XP is designed as a multi-user OS, it completely
| >isolates each user account from the others, unless you 
allow
| >sharing of certain folders.
|
| at this moment I have D:, E: and F: shared fully, so is 
that why all
| the stuff is showing up in every acct. ??  If I unshare 
the D: drive
| and leave E: and F: (my storage drives) shared, will that 
isolate
| those programs?
|
| >You can have each user account on the same 
drive/partition,
| >they cannot access the other users data.  Did you say
| >whether you are running XP Home or Pro?
|
| Pro
|
| >The basic user
| >account types are administrative and limited.  Any
| >administrative account can get into and modify any 
account
| >on the computer and install/remove programs.  A limited
| >account cannot access other users accounts or add/remove
| >programs.
| >Their accounts, email and settings are private unless set 
to
| >be shared.
|
| I have the only administrative acct, the other 2 are 
limited.
|
| >With your setup I think you're making a mistake using the 
6
| >GB drive as your boot drive because it is probably a slow
| >drive with a small cache [guessing 5400 RPM].
|
| yes
|
| >If it was my computer I would consider, when an 
opportunity
| >presented itself, to set it up with the faster 120 GB,
| >partitioned as it is now, in three partitions... move the
| >data from the D: partition to a folder on E:, then format
| >D:.
| >Turn the computer OFF, open it up, re-set the jumpers so 
the
| >120 GB drive was master and the 6 GB a slave.  Close it 
back
| >up, do a clean install to the C: partition (formerly the
| >D:), resizing it to about 25 GB leaving some unused space 
to
| >be handled later.
|
| my initial setup was C: 20G, D: and E: 50G ea.  so that 
should be
| adequate, yes? D: has about 1.4G on it so far, E: is 
almost full
| (about 1.5G available), F: is empty still.
|
| >The 6 GB drive could then be used for swap files as D: 
and
| >the present E: and F: would remain the same.
|
| and I can just ressign the drive letters?
|
| >You would see better, faster performance using the faster
| >big drive (assuming it is 7200 RPM) and the small drive
| >could be used for the swap file (virtual memory by 
manually
| >setting it up) and that would also speed up operation.
|
| nope, it's a 5400rpm drive also..  ;-(  price must have 
been better.
|
| I do have a 60G 7200rpm drive available, I think I'll just 
swap out
| the 6G and replace it, if I have to reinstall anyway, 
might as well do
| it that way... and might as well do it now than later..
|
| thanks for the info?  knowledge is power.. ;-)
|
| please still answer the above questions though, it will 
help me
| understand this better, mostly about the sharing issue.. 
if I just
| unshare the D: drive, will those program then be 
unavailable to the
| other users?
|
| Thanks for your paitience.
|
| niteowl
|

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