Prohibiting Users from installing.
In XP home there are two versions of the administrator account, one that appears at the XP log-on screen during the install procedure (default for all accounts) and the real one that you can only access through safe mode. XP professional is similar (and simpler) to Win 2000. The “Guest account” should be disabled unless you have a specific reason not to.
If all software on your computer is XP compliant, stopping (non administrators) from installing programmes that they have downloaded, or even from a CD should be easy as you can restrict NTFS write permissions (not the only way) providing that the NTFS file system is in place.
It is virtually impossible to do with fat32 as the steps necessary would limit the user to viewing files only. It’s actually simpler to use the .NET interface and some scripts to control user accounts but this is not for the timid.
If you have XP home then stopping users (who know what they are doing) from installing anything is not easy and requires an in-depth knowledge of how to set-up users from safe mode. A simple error here can lead to many wasted hours, one of the reasons why XP home should have never been released.
In addition software that’s installed using XP home by an administrator sometimes does not work for other users, especially win 98 programmes, or can cause interaction between users that were not intended by the administrator (see file/folder inheritance). This also applies to XP compliant software.
Ordinarily, the Administrator account is hidden from view. It appears on the Welcome screen only in the following situations:
No other administrative user accounts exist.
You start your computer in Safe Mode (by pressing F8 during startup).
The Administrator account is logged on and you're using Fast User Switching. Nonetheless, the account does exist, and it takes care of some important functions. First, because it can't be deleted, it provides a safety net in case you somehow manage to delete all other accounts. You can log on as Administrator and then create other accounts. Second, it's the only account that can log on to the Recovery Console, your last-ditch opportunity for repairing a damaged system.
By default, the Administrator password in Windows XP Home Edition is blank. This isn't the gaping security hole that you might imagine, however, because in Home Edition the Administrator account is barred from logging on locally or through a network connection. You do, however, need to know that the password is blank if you ever need to run Recovery Console, which requires the Administrator password. If the blank password concerns you, you can change it.
Logging On as Administrator
If you're using Windows XP Professional, you can log on as Administrator. If the Welcome screen is enabled, press Ctrl+Alt+Delete twice to display the Log On To Windows dialog box. (If the Welcome screen is disabled, press Ctrl+Alt+Delete one time as you would to log on with any other account.) Type Administrator in the User Name box, and enter the password you created for the Administrator account during set-up. Except in Safe Mode, Windows XP Home Edition users can't log on using the Administrator account, because it is prevented by account restrictions from logging on.
This is more complicated that it appears, or is it?