Re: Administrator righs in safe mode

On Feb 1, 6:38 pm, BrianW <Bri...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello,

I did set up an administrator account and password when I bought thecomputer. I also set up a user account for my son with limited rights.
Somehow through Safe Mode he figured out how to change his account so that he
had administrator rights. I will enter Safe Mode and see if I need to add
another password. He does not know the administrator password.

Does anyone have any experience with the effectiveness of theSharedComputertoolkit?

"S.Sengupta" wrote:
Administrator account logon option appears only in Safe mode if more
than one account is created on the system.It's not a flaw.

Here is how to set Administrator password,just change to another password.

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/computing/kb/kb0824.html

regards,
S.Sengupta[MS-MVP]

BrianW wrote:
Hello Tom,

My son claims it is a known XP flaw. I have also tried installing Microsoft
SharedComputerToolkitbut so far I am having some problems gettig it to
work properly and am not sure it will guard thecomputerin safe mode.

Brian

"Tom Scales" wrote:

It shouldn't. It should prompt for the password. I'll defer to others on
why it isn't.
"BrianW" <Bri...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:64842C86-74F4-4559-96F8-7696AB883DF3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hello Tom,

He doesn't know the password but booting in safe mode allows him to become
an administrator without a password. I'm not sure what he does in the safe
mode to allow this to happen.

Brian

"Tom Scales" wrote:

"BrianW" <Bri...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:DC4E60C5-6F45-4C39-AB3F-CA0FDE558E00@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I have a teenage son who has discovered that he can gain administrator
rights
by starting in safe mode. He changes the rights to his user account,
reboots,
and then does what he wishes to do.

How can I prevent him from doing this?

Put a password he doesn't know on the administrator account.

Smart kid

I have a similar situation and I have installed the Shared Computer
Toolkit. In the manual it does refer to a restricted administrator
account but advises against using it because it says that there is no
way to secure the login completely. I have set up a restricted
administrator account for my sons which enables them to play the games
they want but I have disabled access to the control panel and all the
drives etc. so theoretically they shouldn't be able to actually use
the administrator rights, they can only see the games they are allowed
to play. However, what has happened a few times (a bug in Shared
Computer Tookit? not sure because I wasn't there to see it) is that
there has been a boot up which brings up some sort of error screen and
the Toolkit no longer works for that login and they can do whatever
they want. I'd be interested if anyone else has experienced this.

Just in case it is useful: I have also written some simple batch
files using the "net user /time: etc." command which restricts usage
to certain blocks of time on certain days.

Another point: The most stupid thing about the toolkit is the login
timeout. If you limit your child to say 60 minutes, it counts down
but then it resets and all he/she has to do is log in again and the
timer restarts, how dumb is that!!

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Loss of Administrator User
    ... Enable/Disable Administrator on Welcome Screen ... When I try to access the Administrator account while in Safe Mode it is ... Are you logging on with an account that has Administrator permissions?? ... Safe Mode to access the Administrator account in User Accounts. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin)
  • Re: Loss of Administrator User
    ... Keep having fun, Peter. ... Enable/Disable Administrator on Welcome Screen ... When I try to access the Administrator account while in Safe Mode it is ... Are you logging on with an account that has Administrator permissions?? ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin)
  • Re: Log on Windows XP Professional
    ... >Because of the security features built into Windows XP, ... administrator rights, you can ... >use that account to change the password of the account ... >First you need to boot the system into Safe Mode: ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin)
  • Re: xp control panel does not display in safe mode
    ... access the control panel in safe mode. ... Administrator account while in Normal Mode. ... Once you have the command prompt window open you can use the net user ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.configuration_manage)
  • Re: Boot-up peculiarity
    ... With Autologon ON, it bypasses the choice of accounts. ... The password for the built in Windows Administrator account is normally blank. ... boot the computer into Safe Mode. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
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