Adding and Changing Users in Windows XP and 2000 - Windows Tips

User accounts are used in Windows to manage who gets to do what and who has what permissions when it comes to the operating system. If everyone logged in with the same user account then there would be no way to tell who did what or preventing or allowing people from performing certain tasks on the computer.

An important thing to know how to do is manage your users so that you can only give them the permissions needed and so that they can only get to their own files and not see everyone else's files either. Windows has a utility that lets you create, delete and manage the users on your computer.

In order to add, remove or edit users in Windows you need to make sure you have the proper permissions first of all, and then you need to know where to go to make these changes. This method will vary between Windows 2000, XP Home and XP Professional.

To add a user in Windows XP Home you can go to Start, Settings, Control Panel or to Start, Control Panel and then to user accounts. You will see a window like the following:

From here you can add a new user, change an existing user, change the picture used for that user account, assign passwords and change the way users log on.

The Windows XP Pro and 2000 user screen is setup differently because you have greater flexibility with your user settings and permissions. This is a sample of the User Accounts settings from Control Panel.

You can also right click the My Computer icon and pick Manage to get to your user settings. This is also how you would manage your user accounts in Windows 2000.

From here you can right click a user to change that user's password. You can also double click a user and change properties such as password settings and group memberships.

Once you get the hang of how to manage the users on your computer, you will feel better knowing that your computer is more secure and that your files are safe.

Related Tips:
Disabling Vista’s User Account Control (UAC)
Create a Windows XP Password Reset Disk

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