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Windows XP assumes that, sooner or later, more than one person will want to work on your PC. All sorts of problems crop up when several people share a PC.
Windows helps keep peace in the family — and in the office — by requiring people to log on. The process of logging on (also called signing on) lets Windows keep track of each person's settings: You tell Windows who you are, and Windows lets you play in your own sandbox.
 | Having personal settings that activate when you log on to Windows XP isn't heavy-duty security, at least in the Home version of Windows XP. (Windows XP/Pro beefs up security substantially, particularly if you're connected to a big corporate network, but makes you jump through many more hoops.) In Windows XP/Home, your settings can get clobbered, and your files deleted, if someone else tries hard enough. But as long as everybody sharing the PC cooperates, the Windows XP logon method works pretty darn well. |
Adding more users
After you log on by clicking your name on the Welcome screen, you can add more users quite easily. Here's how:
1. Choose Start --> Control Panel --> User Accounts.
You see the User Accounts window, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Perform all kinds of account maintenance in the User Accounts screen.
2. Click the task marked Create a New Account.
3. Enter an account name and click Next.
You can give a new account just about any name you like: first name, last name, nickname, titles, abbreviations. No sweat. Even weird punctuation marks make it past the Windows censors: The name "All your base@!^" works fine.
4. Tell Windows whether you want the account to be a Computer Administrator account or a Limited account. Click Create Account.
The choice of Administrator versus Limited account status isn't nearly as straightforward as Microsoft's description would lead you to believe. If the person who will be using this account is gullible or new to the seamier side of Windows, give her a Limited account.
You're done. Rocket science. The name now appears on the Welcome screen.
The Guest account is a special Limited account that comes in handy if many different people need to use a computer, but you don't want any of them to be able to get at important information — or run potentially destructive programs. To make the Guest account available on your computer, follow these steps:
1. Choose Start --> Control Panel --> User Accounts.
You get the User Accounts dialog box shown in Figure 1.
2. In the lower-right corner, click the User Accounts icon.
Windows shows you a User Accounts dialog box with all the users listed (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Turn on the Guest Account from this User Accounts screen.
3. If the Guest account is off, click the Guest icon.
Windows asks whether you want to turn on the Guest account.
4. Click the Turn On the Guest Account button. Then close the User Accounts window.
From that point, Windows will show "Guest" as an account on the Welcome screen.
 | If you only have a few people who sporadically use your PC, take the time to set up Limited accounts for each of them. That way, your PC will save their settings and make them available the next time each person logs on. But if you have more than a handful of guests, enable the Guest account, and have all of them use the Guest account. |
Don't enable the Guest account unless you need it. One more account is just one more potential hole for a virus writer to exploit.
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