Limited account is not very limited?

[crazychicken]

I changed an administrator account to a limited account. However, now when I login to the limited account, not very much is limited. I can still delete printers and uninstall software etc. Is there a way to determine what the limited accounts can do?

Thanks

David

 

[jamie8dc]

I'd like to know how to do this too...

 

[mechBgon]

That isn't normal. If you right-click on My Computer and choose Manage from the right-click menu, Computer Management opens. In Computer Management, go down to System Tools > Local Users and Groups > Groups, and what usernames are in the Administrators group, exactly?

If the account you changed is the one named "Administrator" itself, that is the system's own Admin account, normally hidden. Sometimes mishaps occur and people end up riding around in the system's own Administrator account without realizing it. I don't know if you can de-Admin that one the way you can a normal, user-created Admin account.

As a test, create another account, switch that one to non-Admin, and try using it to do stuff like changing the system time, running Defrag, or creating a file in the C:\Windows\System32 directory. It shouldn't work. I'm assuming your HDD is in NTFS format (NTFS = good).

 

[Fardringle]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
That isn't normal.

Agreed. It sounds like the change to the account wasn't saved so it is still being treated as an administrator, or you haven't fully logged out and back in so the system can register the change on the restricted account.

 

[LuDaCriS66]

in general, you shouldn't really switch an administrator account to a limited one because quite frankly, this doesn't work very well.

it's best to create a limited account from scratch.

 

[pcslookout]

Originally posted by: LuDaCriS66
in general, you shouldn't really switch an administrator account to a limited one because quite frankly, this doesn't work very well.

it's best to create a limited account from scratch.

Would this mean you have to reinstall all your drivers, software, and games again ?

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: pcslookout

Originally posted by: LuDaCriS66
in general, you shouldn't really switch an administrator account to a limited one because quite frankly, this doesn't work very well.

it's best to create a limited account from scratch.

Would this mean you have to reinstall all your drivers, software, and games again ?

No, you would just be adding another user account. Once you have the new account working the way you want, you can either delete, or disable the original account.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Muadib

Originally posted by: pcslookout

Originally posted by: LuDaCriS66
in general, you shouldn't really switch an administrator account to a limited one because quite frankly, this doesn't work very well.

it's best to create a limited account from scratch.

Would this mean you have to reinstall all your drivers, software, and games again ?

No, you would just be adding another user account. Once you have the new account working the way you want, you can either delete, or disable the original account.

However, you cannot have just one Limited account and the system's own hidden Administrator account. There needs to be one of your Admin accounts left.

I haven't had any problems adding a new Admin account and then demoting the user's own account to Limited. It normally works perfectly fine that way, and saves having to set everything up again.