Need help from someone who knows alot about XP

[corinthos]

I am living in a new place with roommates that I don't know very well... I use the 'switch user' menu option off of the Logoff portion of the Start menu, which takes me to a login screen requiring me to enter my password to regain access to the desktop. It also allows processes to stay running so I can instantly pick up where I left off after logging back in. I do this to secure my box if I am expecting to be not within sight of my computer for a certain period of time while roommates are around... To my dismay, the other day, I was in another area of the apartment for a little while... when I returned and checked my screen (the login screen), I saw a pop-up message I've not seen before... There's a logoff button at the lower left corner of the login screen... when you click on that button, you get a blue pop-up at the center of your display, with 3 options: sleep, restart, shutdown... before I left my computer I had selected the 'switch user' option and it took me to the login screen, which should have secured my computer.. when I returned to my computer, I saw a different looking pop-up message... it was more rectangular than the aforementioned blue pop-up, and if I remember correctly it was grayish colored... it asked if i wanted to either restart or shutdown.. i don't recall exactly.. i just remember that the pop-up looked foreign to me.. if i had simply seen the aforementioned blue pop-up.. i would have thought maybe i clicked the logoff button by accident before i left.. but since this is a new pop-up i've not seen before, I am wondering if a roommate was tampering with my computer while I was relatively briefly away.

Could someone familiar with XP tell me what this pop-up screen may be? and how it can be triggered (I tried a variety of hotkeys at the login screen to see if I could make it happen again, without success)? is there a way to check to see if someone may have been fiddling w/ my PC while I was away? logs of login attempts or whatnot perhaps?

I want to find this out to determine how much I can trust the new roommates. Thanks in advance.

 

[Zugzwang152]

Have you tried control + alt + del twice?

It sounds like you use the Welcome screen (which Windows XP uses by default) normally. However, you can hit control + alt + del twice to get the classic login screen. On Windows XP, it is useful for logging on as the default Administrator account, or other builtin accounts that are hidden on the Welcome screen.

Note that you can do this without a valid password. One of your roommates may have attempted this to check whether you had put a password on your default Administrator account.

More likely, they did it to make you freak out and make a post on AT about it

 

[SilthDraeth]

Honestly, if you do not have your room mates logging on as other users, you should do what zug is saying, or when logged in, go into your control panel,
Start menu,
Control panel
on left side, choose classic view
choose user accounts
change how users log on

Then you have to type your own username and password
Then make sure you put a password on the default administrator account

Now, if you want to leave programs running while you are away from your computer you can do the following:
press and hold the windows key on your keyboard and then hit the letter L and that locks your login
or
press ctrl+alt+del and click on the lock computer button