Re: Is there a 'dominant administrator account'?

Steve Hawkins wrote:
I'm rather puzzled by behaviour of my account on a shared XPPro pc.

I have been having problems setting up Google Desktop for 2 admin users
(see my other thread - no takers yet), briefly, I can set up GD no probs:
other user gets 'invalid id' messages.

During investigation I am surprised to find that from my 'side' I am able
to read the other administrator user's files via Windows Explorer, but
when I am trying to look at things from 'her side' I cannot open my own
folders. This happens even after I have removed the log on password from
my account.
I was also, a little disturbed to find that, even when I had the password
set, I could still remove it (or apparently remove it) from the other
administrator's account.

Can somebody tell me what is going on here?
Also, is it possible to set my account so that another administrator
cannot change my password without having to give it?
Might this phenomenon explain why one user is unable to load the GD
software.
I have looked at the security tab info for Windows Explorer and both users
have the same permissions apparently.
I have also wondered why our log on dialogues only allow for Administrator
Users, and Users, even though there are several other categories of user
when one looks in the Management screens?

Why is it that I seem to have 'super administrator' powers when it comes
to loading programmes and reading other people's files?

Short answer, it sounds like you have marked your profile directory as private and the other administrators have not. If they are admin, they can still get to your files but the process is a multistep one. They would first have to take ownership of your profile directory. Alternatively they could go in and modify the security attributes on your profile directory.

The easiest way to toggle this setting is to go to the profile folder under Documents and Settings, right click on the folder, go to the Sharing tab and click the "Make this folder private..." line.

As far as changing another user's password, any admin can change anyone elses password on the machine.
--
Tom Porterfield

.

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