two questions; keyboard, Administrator account

[wit>trope]

XP Pro

1 On my keyboard if I press one of the funky buttons that is (custom) set to open a certain program, that program ends up being opened in all logged in accounts. Anyway to fix this?

2 Is there any disadvantage to making use of the built-in-Adminstrator account that is normally only visible in Safe Mode? Rather than make another account, I figure I could just use this one.

Thanks for all your incredible help

 

[Speedo]

1. Disable Fast User switching (I would do it anyway, it's a waste of memory)

2. Well, it means that if your account some gets FUBAR'd, you don't have a backdoor to get in and fix the comp. It's not that difficult to make another account. Just be sure you put a password on the administrator account. I also prefer to change its name through the group policy editor.

 

[wit>trope]

1. Disable Fast User switching (I would do it anyway, it's a waste of memory)

2. Well, it means that if your account some gets FUBAR'd, you don't have a backdoor to get in and fix the comp. It's not that difficult to make another account. Just be sure you put a password on the administrator account. I also prefer to change its name through the group policy editor.

Thanks. Is it important to have a different password for different accounts in this situation?

 

[CruddyLeper]

It is the smart thing to do - that way you use your normal accont most of the time, and only go Administrator when there is a problem to sort out.

I must admit I spend a lot of time as Administrator when setting up a new PC, and am glad to see the back of it. Makes it easy to remember my admin password!

 

[Speedo]

Thanks. Is it important to have a different password for different accounts in this situation?

Like CL said it's the smart thing. You *always* want to password the administrator account though, because an account by that exact name is on 99.9% of windows PCs (you can change the name and, IIRC, remove the account, if you dig deep into the group policy settings), so if it's not passworded... anyone with a little bit of knowledge has the key to full access of your PC.

Honestly though my main PC and admin account have the same password. I figure if someone can figure out the name of my admin account -I've changed it- and my 40-odd character password, they deserve to get in

 

[wit>trope]

Like CL said it's the smart thing. You *always* want to password the administrator account though, because an account by that exact name is on 99.9% of windows PCs (you can change the name and, IIRC, remove the account, if you dig deep into the group policy settings), so if it's not passworded... anyone with a little bit of knowledge has the key to full access of your PC.

Honestly though my main PC and admin account have the same password. I figure if someone can figure out the name of my admin account -I've changed it- and my 40-odd character password, they deserve to get in

Thank you so much and thanks to CL also.

Is it just because if they are able to guess one password your different password account will be shielded? Or is there some other underlying reason why it is better?

And how do you remember your 40 character password?

 

[Speedo]

Well, to be honest on most PCs it probably wouldn't make that much difference. Most people use account with administrator privileges, so getting into the main account give basically the same access that the administrator account would. Ideally you would have the main account with user-level rights, so that someone getting into it wouldn't be able to do much.