XP Logon Problem... please take a look.

[datalink7]

Hi all,

I have been using the classic logon in WinXP (where you type in name and password), but want to switch to the one where you select the pictures. This is because I have a bunch of neighbors in my dorm who don't have computers, but they like to play CS. I want to set up some accounts for them to be able to do this while I'm not there, and it would be easy for them to just select their picture and log in. But there is a problem. For some reason, the administrator account doesn't come up with a picture on the logon screen. Nor does it have a picture in the start menue (shown here).

But when I go to control panel, there is a picture for the administator account (shown here)

What is up with this? The Account "Charles Phillips" shows up, and this is also an adminstrator. But I haven't been using this one and so all the settings are different. Is there any way to get teh Administrator account to show up on the WinXP log on screen, or will I have to switch to using the "Charles Phillips" account?

THanks for any help.

 

[datalink7]

If anyone tried to look at the photos, and it said that they were restricted, sorry. They are unrestricted now.

 

[CTho9305]

i haven't found any way to get admin to show. but if you press ctrl+alt+del at that screen AND nobody is logged on (as in, not using fast-user-switching at the moment) then you'll get the win2k style login box.

as soon as someone else logs in though, if they switch-user out instead of logout, ctrl+alt+del won't change to teh old style. wierd 🙁

anywya, one thing you could do is log in as admin when you boot, then switch-user out. it will show admin then until you actually log out. it will be password protected as normal.

 

[bsobel]

Actually, this is as designed by MS. They wanted to discourage having an 'Administrator' account on the welcome screen. So, if any other account has admin priv's it won't show the built in account. Normally makes sense, my wife and I both are 'admins' so our login sceen has our two names not the three that would be included if they showed the admin account.

Can you create a new account for yourself and just use that?

Bill

 

[datalink7]

I suppose I will just have to create a new admin account and use that. Not exactly a problem, just more of a hassel to change all the settings to what I want.

Thanks for the answers.

 

[Dimitri]

If re-doing the settings is too big a pain just try copying and pasting everything under the c:\documents and settings\administrator to the c:\documents and settings\<new account> folder. I remember doing that once after putting my pc onto a domain and creating another account and it seemed to work fine.

 

[igiveup]

If you notice, the first time you create a new user, it must be an administrator account. The Admin account then goes byebye. The idea behind this is that to access a computer a user or hacker needs two things: a username and a password (unless they are doing some other kind of hack). If you change the built in administrator name to something else, you get rid of one part of the equation and make it a LOT harder to try a username/password hack. You could change the Administrator name to something else in Windows 2000, but this is the first time they actively promote changing this. Its a good idea in my mind.

Question: Why exactly do you want to give outsiders admin access to your box? You sure are trusting. They don't need anything more than guest rights and the application icon given the correct permissions.

 

[Dimitri]

<< The Admin account then goes byebye >>



Wrong.
WinXP works no different than win2k except that you have the choice of the welcome screen logon but the downside to that is the Administrator account is not easily accessible from there. The Admin account is not really meant to be the main daily account used (much like root account for Unix) regardless of whether you have admin access or not. You should've been using the account you created (your name) not the Admin account. The Admin account is always there just harder to access without the classic logon window.



<< Question: Why exactly do you want to give outsiders admin access to your box? You sure are trusting. They don't need anything more than guest rights and the application icon given the correct permissions. >>



I would hope he creates these accounts as guests, but he never specified that in this thread.

 

[Blueoak]

I believe you can set to have the Administrator account show up on the "non-classic" logon screen via TweakUI in Microsoft's Powertoys, but I don't have it installed on this computer, so I can't check for you.

Here's a link for Microsoft Powertoys Link

EDIT: Just checked. It's in TweakUI in the Logon category.

 

[datalink7]

<<
Question: Why exactly do you want to give outsiders admin access to your box? You sure are trusting. They don't need anything more than guest rights and the application icon given the correct permissions. >>



Well, one sometimes wants to borrow the printer and word, which is fine by me (he is a friend who does stuff for me). So I will create limited accounts, but make most stuff available only to my account.