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Evening All,
I’m about to take my sammy out for his first trip.. and have been thinking about password protection.. if i set the password using control panel / user account / create a password.. how easy is it then to switch it off because i don’t want to have to use it normally.. when he’s safely on the sofa, in the kitchen or in the garden.
Ta in advance
I am a confirmed password user on Windows.
It is dead easy to remove in control panel/ user accounts/ remove my password.Thanks swradioactive.. i was a bit concerned that once you’ve set it up it may turn into a monster and need to be entered on a regular basis.
Just a quick note that may or may not be of interest. By default your XP Home install has an Admin account that has no password. So if your PC is stolen/lost they can boot in safemode and waltz right into Windows. As an Admin they can then take ownership of any files they want.
This is useful if you swap out a drive from an old PC like I have done in the past! The solution is easy – just set a password on that admin account too. Don’t forget it though :)! Boot in safe mode and set the password in the normal user account section.
Apologies if this is old news!
Thanks Jez,
to confirm does this mean, if i am the only user i would be the admin too or would i need to set the same password for chuf and admin, for example.
Don’t want anyone waltzing without permission. Much prefer the tango myself. 🙂I tend to perform the “drunken stumble” myself!
So “Chuf” the main user account will be an Admin and will be passworded when required.
But when you boot in safe mode it starts with a “secret” Admin account that is different to “Chuf”. This account has no password by default with Windows Home. Crazy but true! You can only get to this account through Safe mode (F8 when booting) but obviously even the lamest hacker will know how to do that!
Some more info via Goog.
John Sergeant a hero is he ?!
I’m very glad i asked now, thanks very much. I often think these things are stupid questions but there’s odften a very odd answer … especially on sammynetbook.
Thanks again. Chuf
Of course, if they had enough time to boot into Safe Mode they’d also have enough time to boot off a USB stick and remove the passwords. (I did that for a friend whose son’s computer was hosed.)
Anyway, the account passwords will ward off casual abuse, and that’s probably all you care about. FWIW, I haven’t even bothered going that far.
Why not set a BIOS password?
Still easy enough to turn it on and off again, but not so easy to bypass.
The more paranoid amongst us would probably add a HDD password as well, so that even if someone removed the HDD from your Sammy, they wouldn’t easily be able to access your data.
[quote1236274730=jez]
I tend to perform the “drunken stumble” myself!
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[quote1236274701=chuf]
John Sergeant a hero is he ?!
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!lol !lolYeah I prefer to not rely on OS level passwords either. I’d encrypt anything sensitive with eg TrueCrypt. But actually my strategy is to not store anything sensitive on there anyway. Bit of a pain to always log into sites and things but I work on the basis that one day I’ll leave it behind somewhere!!
John Sargent was a true inspiration. More of an Ola fan myself however 😀
[YouTube]g4hJSx9VjkQ[/YouTube]On slightly different take:
I set up one of laptop we use at home and I set up missus and my girl’s login accounts with no password so they can click and log in.
I however have my own account and instead of having them displayed and having my girl click and enter invalid password and etc. I simply hid my login account from the account list..
It can only be accessed by pressing Alt+Del twice at the screen~
works like charm and both missus and girl don’t even know I have the account on the laptop as well… ^ ^
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