Windows 7 : Managing Other People’s User Accounts (part 1)

You can allow other people to log on to your computer by creating a user account for them. As with your user account, you can create the account for other people as a standard user account or as an administrator user account. Both account types have passwords, pictures, account names, and account type designations associated with them. Unless your computer is part of a domain, you can manage the properties associated with other people’s accounts by following the techniques discussed in this section. You must have an administrator account to manage other people’s accounts, or the username and password of an administrator account.

NOTE

On a computer that’s part of a domain, you won’t be able to use these techniques to manage other people’s accounts, even if you log on to your computer using a local account. As discussed previously, when your computer is a member of a domain, different security components and features are in effect.

1. Creating User Accounts for Other People

Your computer can, and probably should, have multiple user accounts configured as administrators. However, not everyone who logs on to your computer should be configured with an administrator account. Remember, anyone with administrator privileges can read any file on your computer and make changes to your computer’s configuration. If you’re in doubt as to whether a person needs an administrator account, create that account as a standard user account first. When he or she is trying to perform tasks that require administrator privileges and cannot, you should encourage the user to ask you for help. You can then type in your username and password to allow him or her to perform the task, or explain to the user why he or she shouldn’t be trying to perform this type of task on your computer.

Before other people can log on to your computer, you’ll need to create a user account for them. You can create a local user account on a computer by following these steps:

1. Click Start→Control Panel→User Accounts and Family Safety→Add or Remove Users Accounts.

2. On the “Choose the account you would like to change” page, you’ll see a list of existing accounts on the computer. If an account has a password, it is listed as being password-protected. If an account is disabled, it is listed as being off.

3. Click “Create a new account.” This displays the Create New Account page shown in Figure 1.

4. Type the name of the local account. This name is displayed on the Welcome screen and Start menu.

5. Set the type of account as either Standard user or Administrator.

6. Click Create Account.

Figure 1. Creating a new account

Windows 7 will create a user profile and personal desktop for this user the first time he or she logs on to your computer.

2. Changing User Account Names for Other People

Your computer tracks account names with SIDs. This allows you to safely change account names at any time without worrying that this will cause problems with access permissions or privileges. If you want to change someone else’s account name, follow these steps:

1. Click Start→Control Panel→User Accounts and Family Safety→Add or Remove Users Accounts.

2. On the “Choose the account you would like to change” page, you’ll see a list of existing accounts on the computer. Click the account you want to work with.

3. On the “Make changes to…” page, click “Change the account name.”

4. On the “Type a new account name for…account” page, shown in Figure 2, type the new name for the account and then click Change Name.

Figure 2. Changing the account name

3. Changing the Account Picture for Other People

Every user account can have a unique picture associated with it. This picture is displayed on the logon screen and on the Start menu. If you want to change the picture associated with another person’s account, follow these steps:

1. Click Start→Control Panel→User Accounts and Family Safety→Add or Remove Users Accounts.

2. On the “Choose the account you would like to change” page, you’ll see a list of existing accounts on the computer. Click the account you want to work with.

3. On the “Make changes to…” page, click “Change the picture.”

4. On the “Choose a new picture for…account” page, shown in Figure 3, click the picture you want to use, or click the “Browse for more pictures” link to select any BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, DIB, or RLE picture to use.

5. Click Change Picture.

NOTE

If the user for whom you are setting the picture hasn’t logged on to the computer yet, the picture data is saved temporarily in your profile. When the user logs on, Windows 7 will create the user’s profile and copy the picture you’ve assigned into this profile. Most pictures are optimized to a file size of 50 KB or less—even high-resolution pictures.

Figure 3. Changing the account picture

4. Changing the Account Type for Other People

You can create user accounts as standard user or administrator accounts. You can change the account type at any time by following these steps:

1. Click Start→Control Panel→User Accounts and Family Safety→Add or Remove Users Accounts.

2. On the “Choose the account you would like to change” page, you’ll see a list of existing accounts on the computer. Click the account you want to work with.

3. On the “Make changes to…” page, click “Change the account type.”

4. On the “Choose a new account type for…” page, shown in Figure 4, set the account type as either Standard user or Administrator.

5. Click Change Account Type.

Figure 4. Changing the account type