Multiple Users on One Machine

In many instances, a single computer is used by more than one user, which creates some challenges. While we sometimes use computers to share information, we often want to keep information confidential. We want to customize our desktop settings, and want the computer to look and behave the same way every time we use it, no matter who has used it in the meantime. Furthermore, we might want to prevent other users and network visitors from seeing or changing our files. These issues can make sharing a computer troublesome, and the Windows 9x product line addressed them poorly. Windows XP is a great improvement thanks to the following features:

• User Accounts let you set up access for each individual who wants to use the computer. Each account has its own name and optional password.

• User Profiles let users configure their own personalized desktop scheme, icons, preferences, and settings, and give users their own personal My Documents folder.

• Access control or file permissions let users specify just who is permitted to have access to which of their files.

In this chapter, we'll go over these features so you can decide how much control you want to exercise over your computer. Using these features is optionalyou can make your system as secure or as open as you wish.

First, though, there is a bit of background on accounts that we need to cover. If you already know about user accounts (or don't care to know about them), you can skip ahead to the section "Working with Passwords."