What happens if you remove administrator status from an account?

[neutrino78x]

Guys, I gave my dad my old Thinkpad 600X (800 Mhz Pentium III) and threw his copy of Windows XP (a different version than what I use on my desktop) on it for him. Recently, I noticed that it boots directly to his user account, without asking for a password, and this account appears to be an administrator account (but the username is not "administrator"). I certainly don't remember setting it up that way, but I suppose it is possible that I did so mistakenly! lol.

My intentions are to create another account on there, elevate it to administrator, and then use it to change the status of his user account, so it is not an administrator, and make sure there is a password on all accounts to the PC requires you to type one in one boot (obviously he will choose the password to the new admin account).

My question is, will doing this mess up the settings on his user account? Will MS Outlook, for example, think he is a new user, thus removing his access to his old emails, etc.?

I assume the answer is "no, this will not affect settings on his user account", because it would not in UNIX.

But what do you guys think?

 

[tigsounds]

When you installed XP on the computer, it had you enter a user name. It assumes that person is the owner and makes that an Administrator account.

You don't need to do all the work you described above in your post.

Click in this order: Start>Control Panel>User Accounts>Click the user account showing (not the guest)>Create a password.

Enter a password, record it someplace you can find someday, enter a hint, and click 'Create Password' and you are done.

 

[neutrino78x]

When you installed XP on the computer, it had you enter a user name. It assumes that person is the owner and makes that an Administrator account.

You don't need to do all the work you described above in your post.

Click in this order: Start>Control Panel>User Accounts>Click the user account showing (not the guest)>Create a password.

Enter a password, record it someplace you can find someday, enter a hint, and click 'Create Password' and you are done.

Yeah but that doesn't address the fact that it is an administrator account. I want it to be a limited user account.

In UNIX, you would simply move it out of the superuser group, and change the permissions.

So, in light of that, what do you think? Do you think it would mess up his Outlook account etc.?

 

[tigsounds]

A user is a user. Being demoted will not cause the creation of a new documents & settings entry for the user, or change passwords, etc. They just won't reign supreme in the computer anymore. Using the built-in Administrator account, that user can be re-elevated at any time.

 

[neutrino78x]

A user is a user. Being demoted will not cause the creation of a new documents & settings entry for the user, or change passwords, etc. They just won't reign supreme in the computer anymore.

okay, cool, so it is the same as UNIX. That's what I figured.

lol

Using the built-in Administrator account, that user can be re-elevated at any time.

Yeah, that's true, UNIX is the same way with the root account...