In today’s fast-moving world, speed is of the essence, so being able to switch on your computer and start work as quickly as possible, is most people’s dream. And that mean’s that many people just ignore those pesky things called user accounts.

In effect, the user account is your computer’s first line of defence and you ignore it at your peril. You may install all other kinds of defence and protection software, but if you don’t activate a User Account, it can all be for nothing.

A user account is there to ask for and receive basic information in order that someone may access the particular Windows XP, or Windows Vista system it is protecting.

And the beauty of the concept is that different users can be given different user accounts, which allows them to do different things on the computer. Now, this might be a little too sophisticated for most users, but it does give the chance to allow different people to do different things.

But lets take a quick look at the five types of user accounts. These are:

• computer administrator accounts;
• limited accounts;
• standard accounts;
• guest accounts;
• special user accounts.

If you set-up a Computer Administrator Account, it means that the user can do almost anything on the computer. This can include installing programmes, creating and deleting and managing other user accounts, reading and opening files, and, make system changes. Most people using their own computer will be doing so as an Administrator.

Limited User Accounts are just that. The user has limited powers to mess about with the computer, including installing and deleting particular software applications.

Standard User Accounts are the norm for people running a home, or small business network, and whose computers are connected together in a workgroup, rather than run centrally via a network server. Standard users have about the same capabilities as a Limited User.

A Guest User Account is just as it sounds. It means that a guest can use the computer for say working on certain applications, but not able to access other parts of the computer.

A Special User account does not technically exist in Windows jargon, but refers to special user accounts which might crop up now and again, but will most likely feature in networked situations when someone creates a special account for a particular reason.

If you want to have a go at creating user accounts and choosing which one suits you, then click Start, then Control Panel, then User Accounts, which will take you into the User Accounts Box. Follow instructions from there and you can create users to your heart’s content, and decide what they can and can’t do.

Group Accounts

Group accounts are concerned primarily with options in the professional versions of Windows and allows the creation of group users – people grouped together and given various limits and priviledge in terms of access to the tool and applications on their computers. We won’t get bogged down with this, because it is basically designed for large networks and allows a single administrator to more easily manage the large number of users he might have on his system at any one time.

Log-On Security

Right, hopefully the message has got across that you should use a user account.

Now, most people opt for the simpler life and have their computer configured in a way that all they need to do is click their user name which appears next to their icon. Or, if they have password – a good thing – then they’ve given the hacker half of the information they need – the user name – to have a go at cracking the password. And if anyone knows anything about a person, it can be quite a simple task to guess a password.

Simple and fun. But, as a security measure, it’s laughable. So, once you have created a User Account and protected it with a password, one of the best ways to hide it from inquisitive eyes is to use the classic Windows log-screen.

Click Start, Control and User Accounts. Under Pick a task, you need to select Change the way users log on or off. You will then see the Select logon and logoff options screen. From there, remove the tick from the Use the Welcome Screen. Once done, click Apply Options and work you way back, and turnoff your computer. When you open it again, you will be asked for username and password, increasing the level of security.

User Accounts, Groups and Log-On Security – Recap

• five types of user accounts;
• improve security with classic log-on techniques.