Setting Properties for User Accounts in Windows XP Professional

  Windows XP Professional creates a set of default account properties for each local user account. After you create a local user account, you can configure the account properties using the Computer Management snap-in. The account properties are grouped under three tabs in a user account-name Properties dialog box: General, Member Of, and Profile.

  If you do not know how to open the Computer manangement window, here is the instructions how to do this. Click Start and then Right click on My Computer and choose Manage from the drop down list box. Or you can do the following:

  • Click Start, and then click Run.
  • In the Open text box, type mmc and then click OK. MMC starts and displays an empty console.
  • Maximize the Console1 window.
  • Maximize the Console Root window.
  • On the File menu, click Add/Remove Snap-In.
  • MMC displays the Add/Remove Snap-In dialog box.
  • In the Standalone tab, click Add.
  • In the Available Standalone Snap-Ins list, select Computer Management, and then click Add. MMC displays the Computer Management dialog box , which allows you to specify which computer you want to administer. The Local Computer: (The Computer This Console Is Running On) option is selected by default.

    •    The General Tab

      The General tab in the account-name Properties dialog box allows you to set or edit all the fields from the New User dialog box, except User Name, Password, and Confirm Password. In addition, it provides an Account Is Locked Out check box.

      If the account is active and is not locked out of the system, the Account Is Locked Out check box is unavailable. The system locks out a user who exceeds the limit for the number of failed logon attempts. This security feature makes it more difficult for an unauthorized user to break into the system. If the system locks out an account, the Account Is Locked Out check box becomes available, and an administrator can clear the check box to allow user access.

       The Member Of Tab

      The Member Of tab in the account-name Properties dialog box allows you to add the user account to or remove the user account from a group.

       User Profile

      The Profile tab in the Properties dialog box allows you to set a path for the user profile, logon script, and home folder.

       User Profiles

      A user profile is a collection of folders and data that stores your current desktop environment, application settings, and personal data. It also contains all the network connections that are established when you log on to a computer, such as Start menu items and drives mapped to network servers. The user profile maintains consistency by providing the same desktop environment every time you log on to the computer. Windows XP Professional creates a user profile the first time you log on to a computer and stores it on that computer. This user profile is also known as a local user profile. User profiles operate in the following way on client computers running Windows XP Professional:

  • When you log on the client computer, you always receive your desktop settings and connections, regardless of how many users share the same client computer.
  • The first time you log on to the client computer, Windows XP Professional creates a default user profile for you. The default user profile is stored in the system_partition_root\Documents and Settings\user_logon_name folder (typically C:\Documents and Settings\user_logon_name), where user_logon_name is the name you enter when logging on to the system.
  • The user profile contains the My Documents folder, which provides a place to store personal files. My Documents is the default location for the File Open and Save As commands. My Documents appears on the Start menu, which makes it easier to locate personal documents.

    •   Note

      Users can store their documents in My Documents or in home folders, such as a home directory located on a network server. Home folders are covered later in this lesson. Windows XP Professional automatically sets up My Documents as the default location for storing data for Microsoft applications. If there is adequate room on the C drive or the drive where Windows XP Professional was installed, users can store their documents in My Documents. However, using My Documents to store personal data greatly increases the amount of space required on a hard disk for installing Windows XP Professional well beyond the minimum.

       Logon Script

      A logon script is a file you can create and assign to a user account to configure the user's working environment. For example, you can use a logon script to establish network connections or start applications. Each time a user logs on, the assigned logon script is run.

       Home Folder

      In addition to the My Documents folder, Windows XP Professional allows you to create home folders for users to store their personal documents. You can store a home folder on a client computer, in a shared folder on a file server, or in a central location on a network server. Storing all home folders on a file server provides the following advantages:

  • Users can access their home folders from any client computer on the network.
  • You can centralize backing up and administering user documents by moving the responsibility for backing up and managing the documents out of the hands of the users and into the hands of one of the network backup operators or network administrators.

    •    Creating a Home Folder

      Store home folders on an NT File System (NTFS) volume so that you can use NTFS permissions to secure user documents. If you store home folders on a file allocation table (FAT) volume, you can restrict home folder access only by using shared folder permissions. To create a home folder on a network file server, complete the following steps:

  • Create and share a folder for storing all users' home folders on a network server. The home folder for each user will reside in this shared folder.
  • For the shared folder, remove the default Full Control permission from the Everyone group and assign Full Control to the Users group. This ensures that only users with domain user accounts can access the shared folder.
  • In the account-name Properties dialog box, in the Profile tab, click Connect and select or type a drive letter with which to connect to the user account home folder on the network.
  • In the To text box, type a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) name (for example, \\server_name\shared_folder_name\user_logon_name). Type the username variable as the user's logon name to automatically give each user's home folder the user logon name (for example, \\server_name\Users\%username%). Naming a folder on an NTFS volume with the username variable assigns the NTFS Full Control permission to the user and removes all other permissions for the folder, including those for the Administrator account.

    •   To set User Account properties, complete the following steps:

  • Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and click Computer Management.
  • Under System Tools, double-click Local Users And Groups, and then click Users.
  • In the details pane, right-click the appropriate user account, and then click Properties.
  • Click the appropriate tab for the properties that you want to configure or modify, and then enter values for each property.
    •  
     
    Best viewed with 1024 x 768 px Resolution
    Developed in association with K K Webtech P Ltd.