thought i might ask you...

[Adi Head]

doesn't really have anything to do with vegas, but since you guys have been so helpful in the past, i thought i might ask you if you know any good forums on the net to get help with WINDOWS issues.

thanks.

[Rob Lohman]

Adi: I've moved your thread to a more open forum. Personally
I don't know of such sites, but why not ask the question in this
thread you opened here? There are quite a lot of people with
PC experience and knowledge around here, including myself.

Good luck!

[Adi Head]

ok. here it is:

one day i turned on my pc and upon starting up, a "welcom" screen appeared promting me to log in by clicking my username. below my user name i received the title "computer administrator" (this occurs after screen saver is activated as well). i thought this was strange and couldn't understand how it suddenly came to be. it didn't bother me too much, because by clicking my username, it would log on and i'd be at my good old desktop like before. but then i decided to try and understand what the meaning of this is. i refered to windows help menu. i didn't find out how all this came to be, but read the following about being a "computer administrator" under "Why you should not run your computer as an administrator:
"Running Windows 2000 or Windows XP as an administrator makes the system vulnerable to Trojan horses and other security risks. The simple act of visiting an Internet site can be extremely damaging to the system."
this freaked me out a bit and now i'm desperate to make things as they were before the "welcome" screen appeared and all this administrator business came to be.
can anyone explain to me what is going on?
(by the way, i am running WINDOWS XP on my machine)
thanks.

[Josh Bass]

Hey dude. . .if you're still looking for a q&a forum like this one, devoted to Windows, and for that matter, PC related issues, I got just the place for you. www.annoyances.org. Maybe one of the moderators can make that a hyperlink.

[Roger Moore]

I would google it.

If the answer isn't on the web there's always google's archives of usenet posts, called google groups.

Go search microsoft.public.windowsxp.general. If you still can't find it, then post your question and maybe some guru there will help you find the answer.

[Rob Lohman]

Adi: I cannot tell you why it suddenly displays computer
administrator. I'm running XP in another mode and don't use
that welcome screen myself.

What I can tell you is that you've always been a computer
administrator and you really don't want to change this unless
you know what you are doing. Because:

1) you will need to create another user and start using this account or upgrade that one to administrator before downgrading your current account

2) switching users means you get a different desktop and might need to install some tools again which might be problematic

Anyway you look at this it can be quite a hassle to do if you don't
know anything about Windows security and you can easily lock
yourself out if you don't be careful.

This will also add problems down the road if you want to install
other programs since you can't anymore then. You will need to
switch to your other account before you can.

Windows is correct in warning you of the potential dangers, but
unfortunately it does little to help you guide through the fairly
complex procedures needed to pull this extra security off.

The best tip I can give you if your edit machine is also connected
to the internet is to make sure you have a decent firewall running
and a good up to date anti virus software that also gets updates
frequently. That is the best thing to do if you don't know how to
handle Windows security.

If you really want to avoid problems with websites etc. check
out other browsers like Opera or firefox etc. Ofcourse you still
want anti virus for your e-mail etc.

[Adi Head]

ok. thanks again rob!

[Glenn Chan]

If you go to run --> "control userpasswords2" you can see what accounts you have on your system. You can also change yourself to a standard user here. Select the right account and hit properties.

If you go to start there should be an option for logging you off. You can check your user name and you can log off administrator if you are using that account. This is if you have the simple logon/logoff enabled. If not, hit crtl + alt + del and you should be able to figure out what user you are using.

I'm not sure if that helps you.

2- protonic.com is a technical support site you can use. It's free because it's supported by volunteer labour (I volunteer there) and by voluntary donations.

http://www.protonic.com

There are also other support sites out there, but I don't use em so I can't give you my opinion on them. However, google searches on your specific problem may turn up links to those sites (which I sometimes find helpful).

[Stephen Sawchuk]

As Rob said, with a good firewall up and running, combined with an updated antivirus application, you should be fine. I would have said the same thing a year ago. However, Windows continues to become more insecure on a daily basis.

There's plenty of technical reasons why Apple gets hacked way less than Microsoft (the large Microsoft user base amongst them), but there's one thing Apple does that Microsoft generally doesn't. And that's requiring you to type your password before any installation is made. When you log in to Windows as an administrator, you now have complete control over your system. While you have the same with Apple, it asks to make sure that it's you who's doing it. (I switched to an Apple computer last September)

I would say, while it may be inconvenient for you to use a non-administrative account, it may be better off. Right now, I can't go on my freshly-installed, system updated, antivirus-protected, firewalled Windows XP computer without getting blasted with applications installing themselves, pop-ups and all that jazz. So, again, my personal recommendation is to just limit yourself. And when you're told that you need permission from an administrator to do something, just switch to the administrative account to grant your other account the permission.

[Adi Head]

thanks everyone. i'm using norton internet security and antivirus. i'll check out the option you (steve) suggested. at least now i know what's going on. thanks again!