Demote account type in XP Pro

[popeye]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

Good morning everyone

I have XP Pro SP2 and have done some work, created files, accessed the
internet and saved favorites, entered data into Outlook etc. whilst working
in an account with Administrator rights. I have come to learn that this is
not good practice and need to transfer everything to an account with Limited
rights. I know that I can change an account type via Control Panel but I
fear that this might make my work inaccessible in some way.

I posted this question elsewhere and received a response from an XP Home
expert who indicated that there are special procedures for this and I should
appeal to an XP Pro expert for guidance. I have searched and come across
information about copying a profile from one account to another but don't
know if this is what I need to do. Is this the procedure or will this only
transfer data between accounts with the *same* rights, for instance in the
event of data corruption?

Fingers crossed and thanks in anticipation.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

I have a similar issue with XP Home SP2 - presumably the solution would be
the same as for XP Pro, if there is one.
I should be very interested to find out what is the answwer to this, for
similar reasons to thos Popeye gave

"Popeye" wrote:

> Good morning everyone
>
> I have XP Pro SP2 and have done some work, created files, accessed the
> internet and saved favorites, entered data into Outlook etc. whilst working
> in an account with Administrator rights. I have come to learn that this is
> not good practice and need to transfer everything to an account with Limited
> rights. I know that I can change an account type via Control Panel but I
> fear that this might make my work inaccessible in some way.
>
> I posted this question elsewhere and received a response from an XP Home
> expert who indicated that there are special procedures for this and I should
> appeal to an XP Pro expert for guidance. I have searched and come across
> information about copying a profile from one account to another but don't
> know if this is what I need to do. Is this the procedure or will this only
> transfer data between accounts with the *same* rights, for instance in the
> event of data corruption?
>
> Fingers crossed and thanks in anticipation.
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

Popeye wrote:
> Good morning everyone
>
> I have XP Pro SP2 and have done some work, created files, accessed the
> internet and saved favorites, entered data into Outlook etc. whilst
> working in an account with Administrator rights. I have come to
> learn that this is not good practice and need to transfer everything
> to an account with Limited rights. I know that I can change an
> account type via Control Panel but I fear that this might make my
> work inaccessible in some way.
>
> I posted this question elsewhere and received a response from an XP
> Home expert who indicated that there are special procedures for this
> and I should appeal to an XP Pro expert for guidance. I have
> searched and come across information about copying a profile from one
> account to another but don't know if this is what I need to do. Is
> this the procedure or will this only transfer data between accounts
> with the *same* rights, for instance in the event of data corruption?
>
> Fingers crossed and thanks in anticipation.

Make sure you know the default administrator credentials (you set up a
password when you installed Windows)...you can test this by pressing
CTL+ALT+DEL twice when you get to the welcome screen after bootup, and try
logging in as administrator with the password you set. (note: I don't know
if this works in XP Home or not - I don't use Home)

Then if that works, you can change your own account to a limited user
account in control panel, users....and you still have a back door to get in
when/if you want to change things, install software, whatnot.

You shouldn't lose any access to your data files or profile by doing this.
Just note that some (poorly written!) software will insist on running only
with admin rights - if you run into problems with this, FileMon and RegMon
from www.sysinternals.com can help you identify & change whatever needs
changing.

Use good passwords on all your accounts.