Admin vs Guest accounts in Vista 64

I remember talk about in XP you should setup 2 accounts, one as admin that
just used to update system stuff and a guest account you would work from
because it made your system more secure. Is this still true in Vista
specially 64 since i found and someone pointed out Vista even if you are
logged in as admin still will not let some things update or make system
changers unless you right click on them and pick run as admin from the menu
like spybot.

Ghost wrote:

> I remember talk about in XP you should setup 2 accounts, one as admin that
> just used to update system stuff and a guest account you would work from
> because it made your system more secure. Is this still true in Vista
> specially 64 since i found and someone pointed out Vista even if you are
> logged in as admin still will not let some things update or make system
> changers unless you right click on them and pick run as admin from the
> menu like spybot.

Not a guest account but a Standard user account. It doesn't matter if it's
Vista 32 or 64-bit. Here's what I usually say about this subject:

=====
You absolutely do not want to have only one user account. Like XP and all
other modern operating systems, Vista is a multi-user operating system with
built-in system accounts such as Administrator, Default, All Users, and
Guest. These accounts should be left alone as they are part of the
operating system structure.

You particularly don't want only one user account with administrative
privileges on Vista because the built-in Administrator account (normally
only used in emergencies) is disabled by default. If you're running as
Administrator for your daily work and that account gets corrupted, things
will be Difficult. It isn't impossible to activate the built-in
Administrator to rescue things, but it will require third-party tools and
working outside the operating system.

The user account that is for your daily work should be a Standard user, with
the extra administrative user (call it something like "CompAdmin" or "Tech"
or the like) only there for elevation purposes. After you create
"CompAdmin", log into it and change your regular user account to Standard.
Then log back into your regular account.

If you want to go directly to the Desktop and skip the Welcome Screen with
the icons of user accounts, you can do this the same way as in XP:

Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm
=====

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ