Managing User Accounts and Groups

The most basic element ofWindows security is the user account. Each usermust

present a valid user name and password of a user account to log into to aWindows

computer. There are ways to make this logon highly simplified, even invisible

in some cases, but there is no exception to this rule. Each user is also a

member of one or more groups of users. Groups enable the system administrator

to assign the same rights and permissions to allmembers of the group without

the need to set those rights and permissions individually.

Windows 2000/XP have several built-in groups and two user accounts

created during installation—Administrator and Guest—with only the Administrator

account enabled by default.When you installWindows, you supply the

password for the Administrator account. This is the only usable account you

have to log into the computer, unless you joined the computer to a domain or

until you create a new user account.

You can manage users and groups using the Local Users and Groups node in

the Computer Management console, accessed by right-clicking My Computer

and selectingManage. Local Users and Groups can also be used on stand-alone

computers, but Microsoft includes simpler GUI tools for that purpose inWindows

2000/XP. InWindows XP,Microsoft made significant changes in the GUI

tools for managing users and groups, so I’ll break up this discussion between

these two OSs.