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XP user accounts: the administrator account
Posted: 2003-09-08 11:48pm
by Shinova
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?
Posted: 2003-09-09 12:04am
by Exonerate
Yes, there should be no problem.
Posted: 2003-09-09 12:53am
by Crayz9000
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.
Posted: 2003-09-09 01:43am
by Uraniun235
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?
Posted: 2003-09-09 01:52am
by Pu-239
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.
Posted: 2003-09-09 02:42am
by TrailerParkJawa
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.
Posted: 2003-09-09 06:28am
by Crazy_Vasey
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.
Re: XP user accounts: the administrator account
Posted: 2003-09-09 06:37am
by Faram
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:
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
Posted: 2003-09-09 07:07am
by Hethrir
Rename Guest to Administrator and Administrator to Guest. It should keep most SK's out.
Posted: 2003-09-09 08:50am
by phongn
I would suggest renaming Administrator to something else (besides Guest - which should always be disabled).
Posted: 2003-09-09 08:52am
by phongn
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
Posted: 2003-09-09 12:30pm
by Uraniun235
Why fuck with a Guest password when I can just keep it disabled?
Posted: 2003-09-09 04:14pm
by Pu-239
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.
Posted: 2003-09-09 05:30pm
by Shinova
Is there a big necessity in keeping Guest disabled?
Posted: 2003-09-09 06:32pm
by phongn
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.