Setting up Administrator and standard accounts

[Patti]

I installed W7 Ultimate on a new computer a year ago and have used it fine since.
Now I am going away for a month so I have read up on user accounts. It seems I should have set up a standard account at the first along with administrator account.

Since I have only just used the administrator account-with password, all my programs, files, shortcuts, email, etc. are set up on it.

I have created a guest account and a standard account with password and now I see I have no program files nor email on either of these accounts. Do I really have to reinstall all of these programs again and loose all the disk space or can I transfer them over somehow?

The Help file advises using the standard account for daily use but I have been doing fine with the administrator only account. I am confused as to why I need both accounts when it is usually just me on this computer.

 

[Nibiru2012]

Hi Patti!

You really don't need to use a standard account if you're the only one using the computer.

I have just an administrator account on my computer since I'm the only one using it and you should just do that too since you're the only one using your system.

A guest account is good to have if a friend or relative comes to over or to stay a while so they don't have access to your private stuff though.

When using a standard account however, there is no need to reinstall the programs, just direct shortcuts to the desktop from the programs section of the Start Orb or from the programs folders.

Here's a good tutorial and article that may help answer some of the questions you have that maybe I haven't touched upon.

How to Set Up a Standard User Account (or Limited Account) on Windows Vista and Windows 7 for Daily Use

 

[Patti]

Hi Nibiru2012. Thanks so much for the VERY clear help link. It stated exactly what my W7 for Dummies boook said about it being safer to do daily computer work on an standard account. The article made it clear, as did your comments that this is not always the case.

Since I have never had anything but an adminstrator account all these years with no trouble, I think I will keep my life simple and stay with it.

Two good things have come from this excercise, I have set up a password on my administrator account and a Guest account for others. Now I can go on my holiday and not worry about who uses my computer (I hope.) Thanks very much.
Patti

 

[Nibiru2012]

You're Welcome! Have fun on your holiday!

 

[Patti]

Hello,
I assigned a password to my Admistrator account and that works fine.
Since I am going to be away on holiday, I set up a Guest account also with no password. The computer opened with these two accounts shown and I could put in Password on Admistrator account or click on Guest.

This was fine, now all of a sudden, only the admistrator account shows up. If I click on Switch User up pops Another account - no Guest, and the Other has to have a password. The only way I get to Guest is to open Admistrator account with password, go to Start >Shutdown>Switch User then both the accounts show up to choose from.

This all negates my computer being used by others while I am gone but keeping my files private. How can I get Guest back on the startup page?
Thanks, Patti

 

[TrainableMan]

You might read over this.

 

[Patti]

Thanks Trainable Man
I tried the link you gave.
Step 2 from the Guest Account logged on clicked on Manage another account
the administrator password box comes up, when I put in my AA password the “Choose the account you would like to change” comes up. When I click on Guest Account it gives me the option of “change the picture” or “turn off guest account”.

It appears the Guest Account is on but the only way I can access it is from first logging on the Administrator Account then Switch User.

 

[TrainableMan]

I'm not ignoring you Patti, it's just when I enabled my guest account and reboot I DO get both my icon and the guest icon on the screen so I don't know why yours wouldn't. I have also been unsuccessful in a search for "guest account not displaying on logon screen" returning anything but how to turn it on.

At this point all I can hope for is someone else to come along that does have an idea to help. Sorry I couldn't do more.

Had a thought after I hit submit...
Prior to setting a password on your account, was the system set to automatically log you in? If so, try turning that off and see if it has any effect.

 

[Patti]

Thanks anyway Trainable Man. I've had no other input.
As to your last thought, I don't know how to turn the automatice log on on or off
so I don't know what it was set at when I set up my password. Probably on since it opens to my administers account.

I have a little work around. When I startup instead of putting in my password, I click on Switch User. It goes to Other User. I typed in Guest and it opened up without my own account ever being opened. I did not put in any password for the Guest account originally and it was called Guest. When I click Switch user after opening up it says Other User. Strange but it's something. I can leave a note for my visiters to do that and hope it works for them while I am gone and keeps my files private.