Windows XP in a Nutshell

Name

User Accounts — \windows\system32\nusrmgr.cpl

Synopsis

Add or remove user accounts and change the privileges of existing users.

To Open

Control Panel → User Accounts

Command Prompt → control nusrmgr.cpl

Command Prompt → control userpasswords

Description

Windows XP fully supports multiple users, each with his or her own Start menu, Desktop, My Documents folder, color and display theme preferences, application settings, and other odds and ends. Each user has a password and a home directory (located in \Documents and Settings\{username}), under which all of the user’s personal files and folders are stored.

If you have the Home edition of Windows XP, support for multiple users basically ends there. However, Windows XP Professional edition has a more advanced and comprehensive system for managing user accounts.

In Windows XP Professional, some users can be more privileged than others. Administrators have complete control over the system and can run any program, install or remove hardware and software, change any setting, and create, remove, and modify other user accounts. You can also set up “Limited” user accounts, such as the Guest account, which allow others to use your computer without being able to read or modify any of your password-protected files (see Chapter 7) or make any changes to the system. In Windows XP Home edition, all users are considered Administrators.

The User Accounts window is extremely simple and all features are fairly self-explanatory. The main window displays ...