Setting up guest account

Just turned on the Guest Account for the first time. When I switch to
this account, the desktop comes up with a bunch of misc blanked-out
icons which it will not allow me to delete. And there's a blizzard of
"Windows cannot open this file" messages - for shortcut links and for
..exe files including rundll32, issch, eullauncher, sttray, etc.

How do I clean this up and start the Guest acct with a blank desktop?

Thanks!


--

For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life,
please press three.

....Alice Kahn

"Steve" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Just turned on the Guest Account for the first time.

Well you shouldn't. It's a security risk.

From TechNet:

"The Guest account is intended for users who require temporary access to the
system. However, if this account is enabled, a security risk may exist
because an unauthorized user could gain anonymous access to the system
through this account."

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l...chNet.10).aspx

So if you enabled Guest, disable it now and create a Standard/Limited
(Vista, XP Pro/XP Home) for your visitors. Call the new user account
something like "Visitor".



When I switch to
> this account, the desktop comes up with a bunch of misc blanked-out
> icons which it will not allow me to delete. And there's a blizzard of
> "Windows cannot open this file" messages - for shortcut links and for
> .exe files including rundll32, issch, eullauncher, sttray, etc.
>
> How do I clean this up and start the Guest acct with a blank desktop?
>
> Thanks!
>
>
> --
>
> For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of
> life,
> please press three.
>
> ...Alice Kahn



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Gordon wrote:

> "Steve" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Just turned on the Guest Account for the first time.
>
> Well you shouldn't. It's a security risk.
>
> From TechNet:
>
> "The Guest account is intended for users who require temporary access to
> the system. However, if this account is enabled, a security risk may exist
> because an unauthorized user could gain anonymous access to the system
> through this account."
>
> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l...chNet.10).aspx
>
> So if you enabled Guest, disable it now and create a Standard/Limited
> (Vista, XP Pro/XP Home) for your visitors. Call the new user account
> something like "Visitor".

My goodness that sounds familiar.

To the OP - general instructions for setting up user accounts in Vista
follow. And no, you shouldn't use the Guest account.

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.

As mentioned above, if you want an account for friends/relations, make one
called "Visitor" or the like. It should be a Standard account.

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

"Malke" <> wrote in message
news:u%...
> Gordon wrote:
>
>> "Steve" <> wrote in message
>> news:...
>>> Just turned on the Guest Account for the first time.
>>
>> Well you shouldn't. It's a security risk.
>>
>> From TechNet:
>>
>> "The Guest account is intended for users who require temporary access to
>> the system. However, if this account is enabled, a security risk may
>> exist
>> because an unauthorized user could gain anonymous access to the system
>> through this account."
>>
>> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l...chNet.10).aspx
>>
>> So if you enabled Guest, disable it now and create a Standard/Limited
>> (Vista, XP Pro/XP Home) for your visitors. Call the new user account
>> something like "Visitor".
>
> My goodness that sounds familiar.


Is that one of yours then? ;-)

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Gordon wrote:

> Is that one of yours then? ;-)
>

:-)

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

"Gordon" <> wrote:
>> Just turned on the Guest Account for the first time.
>Well you shouldn't. It's a security risk.
>So if you enabled Guest, disable it now and create a Standard/Limited
>(Vista, XP Pro/XP Home) for your visitors. Call the new user account
>something like "Visitor".

Thanks Gordon. The only problem with creating another std acct is that
it then requires acct selection at every reboot. Is there any way to
set one of the accts as default, and maybe have it pause a few
seconds, then boot to the default acct?

Why doesn't MS simply eliminate the Guest Acct option?


--

For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life,
please press three.

....Alice Kahn

Malke <> wrote:
>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.

Would I need to switch to the Admin acct in order to install new
software?

Is there a problem if I leave the daily acct as admin, and set up
another admin acct in case something goes wrong?


--

For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life,
please press three.

....Alice Kahn

"Steve" <> wrote in message
news:...
> "Gordon" <> wrote:
>>> Just turned on the Guest Account for the first time.
>>Well you shouldn't. It's a security risk.
>>So if you enabled Guest, disable it now and create a Standard/Limited
>>(Vista, XP Pro/XP Home) for your visitors. Call the new user account
>>something like "Visitor".
>
> Thanks Gordon. The only problem with creating another std acct is that
> it then requires acct selection at every reboot. Is there any way to
> set one of the accts as default, and maybe have it pause a few
> seconds, then boot to the default acct?

Not that I'm aware of.

>
> Why doesn't MS simply eliminate the Guest Acct option?

It's used in networking, primarily for peer-to-peer networks where there are
no passworded accounts set, mainly in the Home flavours of Windows.

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"Steve" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Malke <> wrote:
>>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.
>
> Would I need to switch to the Admin acct in order to install new
> software?

No - you just get asked for the admin password. (Occasionally you might have
to right-click on the exe file and use run-as administrator...)


> Is there a problem if I leave the daily acct as admin, and set up
> another admin acct in case something goes wrong?

Not per se - it's just not particularly good practice....


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You could rename the Administrator account (in Local Security Policy - Local
Policies - SecurityOptions - Accounts: Rename Administrator). To hack in one
needs a username and password. Not renaming Administrator allows hackers to
guess the username easily.
"Steve" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Malke <> wrote:
>>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.
>
> Would I need to switch to the Admin acct in order to install new
> software?
>
> Is there a problem if I leave the daily acct as admin, and set up
> another admin acct in case something goes wrong?
>
>
> --
>
> For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of
> life,
> please press three.
>
> ...Alice Kahn