Administrator accounts in Windows XP SP1 Pro.?

[pranav81]

Dear all,
Hi there.I want to know how many users are allowed to hold the computer administrator account in Windows XP?
1,5 or 100?
Waiting for some posts,


::Pranav::

[tazdevl]

However many you want to set up. It's all client based and you can set up the accounts any way you'd like. It's more a limitation of how many total accounts XP can handle.

There are limitations if you're logging into a domain, but that's a separate issue.
You could always head to www.microsoft.com and get your answer out of the knowledge base or www.google.com

Taking the initiative is always a good thing.

[pranav81]

Dear tazdevl,
hi.Thanks a lot for the reply.I had searched the microsoft site in vain.
Thanks once again,

See ya later,


::Pranav::

[Matt]

The initial account labled "administrator" is hidden unless you login via safe mode if I recall correctly. I would imagine adding over 10 or so accounts would start to make the machine appear rather cluttered at the logon screen though.

[Morpheus]

You could always head to www.microsoft.com and get your answer out of the knowledge base

HaHaHaHaHaHaHa - that's a good one. Every time I go to the Microsoft website to find some particular information, I end up spending about 30 or 45 minutes going all over their place and if I am lucky, then I find it.

Originally I had the default Administrator account and the guest user account, but I wanted to rename them. I read a few articles that said you can rename them but when I went through the menu options and there was nothing there. When I asked a friend of mine about it ( he was one of the first consumers to use XP ) - he didn't know how to do it and thought it was not possible. So he created 2 new account ( administrator and guest ) and copied everything over. Well this caused Windows Activation to become active again, so I had to call Microsoft to fix it. ( Aparently, XP thought there was a new hardware configuration because I had updated the drivers a few months back. ) The old guest user account was disabled and the old Administrator account would only appear if you turned the Welcome Screen off and you had to type the account name and password in. ( I have know forgotten this password so I can no longer access the original Administrator account. )

Well, 2 days after this happened, I re-read an article on Windows XP Security and it tells you how to rename the accounts!! So, I went through all that hell for nothing!!

Last week I installed XP on a new hard drive and during the installation it tells you what to name your ( Administrator ) account. If you check your accounts it lists your account ( Computer Administrator ), the guest user account and the default Administrator account ( which does not show up on the Welcome Screen ).

You should password protect the 2 Administrator accounts ( and don't forget them!! ) I also removed the sharing option on "My Documents" so anyone login using the guest account can't view or access my files.

[dodecahedron]

sorry, i can't understand what's the trouble
Control Panel -> User Accounts
click on the account you want to rename
click Change my name

what could be simpler???

as for changing the name, i just want to warn you that the name isn't really changed. if you change the user name this way from OldUser to NewUser, the name NewUser is what you see in the logon window etc, but for example in C:\Documents and Settings\ you'll see the old name.
in Computer Management | System Tools | Local Users and Groups | Users, in the Name column you'll see the original OldName, in the Full Name column you'll see the NewName.
same thing if you poke in the registry...

i may be wrong, but i think if you have Administrator privilages, you can change the password of any account, including other administrator accounts, including the default Administrator account (the one that is not shown on the Login window)

[Morpheus]

I went to User Accounts which has the following:

Pick a task....

Change an Account
Create a new Account
Change the way users log on or off

Then it showes the accounts name and picture at the bottom of the screen.

I checked each of those 3 links above and there was nothing on changing the account name. The article I read stated to go to Computer Managment in order to renamed the accounts and passwords.

I just checked now and I when I place the cursor over the account picture at the bottom of the screen, it becomes a link -- I don't remember that it did this before but it is doing it now ( I wonder if it was changed with a windows update ). As for changing the password on the default Administrator Account - why brother since this is on my old hard drive and I am in the process of transfering everything over to my new hard drive.

[dodecahedron]

I went to User Accounts which has the following:

Pick a task....

Change an Account
Create a new Account
Change the way users log on or off

Then it showes the accounts name and picture at the bottom of the screen.

I checked each of those 3 links above and there was nothing on changing the account name.

if you choose Change an Account, you get a new screen with the same account names and pictures (that were at the bottom on the screen before). clicking one of them gives you the same options i mentioned before, the first of which is Change my name.
you must have missed it