Chapter 6: Sharing Your Computer with Multiple Users

Overview

Because Windows Vista is based on Windows XP (which was based on Windows 2000), it has a bevy of security-oriented features that were never present in Windows Me/9x. Windows Me/9x (like the original DOS operating system on which they were based) had almost no built-in security, with no way to prevent one user from reading another user's files. For example, if you create multiple user profiles on a computer running Windows 98 Second Edition, you see a password dialog box when you start Windows. This suggests that the computer is secure, but you can simply click Cancel and get complete access. Windows Vista can require a username and password, and if someone makes too many unsuccessful attempts to gain entry, Windows Vista can deny further attempts for a period of time.

Windows Vista includes Fast User Switching, so that multiple people can be logged on and running programs at the same time. Once you have created separate user accounts for the people who will use the computer, you can set file and folder permissions to control who can open , run, modify, or delete files and folders. Windows Vista also provides Simple File Sharing, which makes it easy to share access to files and folders with other people who use your computer. This chapter examines how to set up Windows for multiple users, including creating user accounts, assigning passwords, logging on, and switching users. It also describes how to log on and off, and how to check who's logged on.

Chapter 31 describes how to share files, folders, and printers with other people on a local area network (LAN) rather than on a single computer. For network security topics, such as how to send secure e-mail, control what information Internet Explorer stores on your disk, and protect your computer from viruses, see Chapter 33.

If your computer is part of a LAN that includes a Windows 2003 Server (or similar server operating system), it is probably part of a domain -a workgroup that is controlled by a server computer. If your computer is part of a domain, don't set up or modify user accounts on your computer without consulting your network administrator, because user accounts are probably managed on the server using Windows authentication services. The instructions in this chapter apply to workgroup-based, not domain-based, LANs.

Caution  

Windows Vista Home Basic Edition doesn't contain all the features described in this chapter. Microsoft decided that home users were unlikely to be connected to large, domain-based networks.