XP user accounts: the administrator account

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-09-08 11:48pm

When I installed XP I got two accounts by default: the Administrator, and my own (which also has administrator powers).

With this in mind, would it be okay if I deleted the Administrator account?

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2003-09-09 12:04am

Yes, there should be no problem.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2003-09-09 12:53am

Keep it. If you fuck up your own user account, you need something to fall back on.

It's like asking if you want to delete root (but less serious, given the nature of Windoze). Don't do it, anyway.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2003-09-09 01:43am

I think I once ran into a problem where the program wanted to be run as the Administrator, and not just a user in the Administrators group... but I'm not certain.

As long as it's got a secure password, what's there to worry about keeping it around?

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2003-09-09 01:52am

I'm running as Admin all the time, since I don't know the windows equivelent of sudo (and would probably be a pain in tha ass anyway, since many things would not be in the path). I'm running FAT32, so it really makes no difference, aside from leaving the possiblity of my reiserFS partition being nuked from windows- very bad thing. Haven't connected it to the internet yet though.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-09-09 02:42am

I would not delete the administrator account. However, if you are worried about security you could rename that account to something else. Just dont forget the new name and password.

Crazy_Vasey · Post by **Crazy_Vasey** » 2003-09-09 06:28am

Pu-239 wrote:I'm running as Admin all the time, since I don't know the windows equivelent of sudo (and would probably be a pain in tha ass anyway, since many things would not be in the path). I'm running FAT32, so it really makes no difference, aside from leaving the possiblity of my reiserFS partition being nuked from windows- very bad thing. Haven't connected it to the internet yet though.

Hold shift, right click on EXE or shortcut, select "run as". Easy as 1-2-3. You need to have the service enabled, though.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2003-09-09 06:37am

Shinova wrote:When I installed XP I got two accounts by default: the Administrator, and my own (which also has administrator powers).

With this in mind, would it be okay if I deleted the Administrator account?

You cannot delete the builtin accounts. Administrator and Guest.

But do this to get some more security.

Start->Run->cmd.exe

This starts a dos prompt.

Type

Code: Select all

net user guest andalongstringoftestandnumbers

In this case it sets the password for the guest account to:

Code: Select all

andalongstringoftestandnumbers

Also it is a good idea to change the password on the administrator account. To do this type.

Start->Run->cmd.exe

Code: Select all

net user administrator yourpassword

DON'T FORGET THE ADMINISTRATOR PASSWORD!

Hethrir · Post by **Hethrir** » 2003-09-09 07:07am

Rename Guest to Administrator and Administrator to Guest. It should keep most SK's out.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-09-09 08:50am

I would suggest renaming Administrator to something else (besides Guest - which should always be disabled).

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-09-09 08:52am

Pu-239 wrote:I'm running as Admin all the time, since I don't know the windows equivelent of sudo (and would probably be a pain in tha ass anyway, since many things would not be in the path).

There's shift-right-click to Run As, as well as the CLI command, but I don't recall it anyways. If it isn't in the path, it's not hard to edit that, either

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2003-09-09 12:30pm

Why fuck with a Guest password when I can just keep it disabled?

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2003-09-09 04:14pm

phongn wrote:
Pu-239 wrote:I'm running as Admin all the time, since I don't know the windows equivelent of sudo (and would probably be a pain in tha ass anyway, since many things would not be in the path).
There's shift-right-click to Run As, as well as the CLI command, but I don't recall it anyways. If it isn't in the path, it's not hard to edit that, either

Try doing that for every folder in C:\Program Files. It's a pain, though I suppose one could make a gawk+shell script... oh wait... you have to use third party stuff like Cygwin

. So maybe something like ls |gawk '{printf "C:\Program Files" $0 ":"}'. Still, it's kind of annoying to have to do this.

Is there still a limit on PATH size on W2K? On 9x/DOS some don't work after shoving too many in. Moot anyways when I get around to installing cygwin.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-09-09 05:30pm

Is there a big necessity in keeping Guest disabled?

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-09-09 06:32pm

Guest is a favorite target if activated. Keep it closed.

You shouldn't have to run much as RUNAS anyways! Keep the Administrator account for administrative duties.

The NT PATH enviornment doesn't have a character size limit, IIRC.

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

XP user accounts: the administrator account

XP user accounts: the administrator account

Re: XP user accounts: the administrator account