Security w/ 2 XP user accounts -pls. help

I posted this elsewhere but did not get a response so I thought I would try again.

At this point I am sure there is something I need to do that I haven't done but I am not sure what and how! You can see below what I use. Both accounts have admin status. I loaded all my security software etc. logged in under my personal win account. I try to keep my bussiness user account just biz and do all my "computer" and other things in the personal user acct.

Thanks in advance for any instructions you might provide.

T

- Fixed the quote tags to separate the quote from the new post and also made the font size a bit bigger. - LWM

 

Hi Tired,

You might get better responses if you post the questions in the appropriate forum

As regards you current question, the best rule to follow (especially as it concerns a number of APPS by a number of vendors) is to look for what is the executeable name for each app and check to see if it is in the running process list of each profile. This will take a little "legwork" but I think it is the surest way. Here is what I would do:

Go to whichever profile you think is closes to having all necessary applications launched by default.

Rightclick on the "Start" menu and select "Open all users" and double-click on the "Programs" icon. What you are looking at here is the base of most of the entries in your Start -> Programs menu (these are only the icons/shortcuts for those programs not the programs themselves). Go to each program menu folder and rightclick on the application icon that you want to make sure is running in each profile. In the right-click menu select "properties" and note the name of the executable in the "Target" field (for instance, for Spyware Guard you will see whatever the path to the file is and the exectable name of "sgmain.exe". Write down on a list that SpywareGuard = sgmain.exe. Open up Task Manager (if you haven't already) by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc, click on the "ImageName" column header to make sure it is in alphabetical order and look to see if sgmain.exe is there (in this example you can easily tell if it is loaded by the systray icon, I am just pointing it out this way so you can follow the steps on the less obvious ones). If the program exe is present in the task list you don't have to do anything in this profile for it. If it is not, you want to *copy* the icon for it (the one you rightclicked on earlier and paste it into your "Startup" folder (go "up" one folder from Spyware Guard and you will see it. Do this for each app you want to have autostart (some will have other means of autostarting but they are the ones you are less likely to need to worry about)

Once you have done this, browse back to your "StartUp" folder and put the window to the side (or minimize) go back to the Start button, right-click, and select "Open", and then double-click on the Programs folder. This will appear very similar to the other but the menu is specific to this one login account. Go through the same steps as above, anything needed to be added into the "Startup" folder should be added to the one that you minimized earlier (this way it is launched for both profiles).

Once you have done this, log into the other account and open up task manager and go through your list of exe's and note which are missing (there should be none missing). Now follow the steps in the second part above (i.e. go to "Open" and not "Open all Users") Browse through this list as you may see programs here that you did not see in the other account. Anything you find that you want added into the other profile you should first check to see if it is in the local startup folder (the one accessed through right-click Start -> Open -> Programs -> Startup) and if it is there you should rightclick on that icon and select "cut" and open up the other "AllUsers" startup folder (rightclick "start" -> Open All Users -> Programs -> Startup) and rightclick on the background of that folder and select paste. (If you left the copy in the local one and tried copied it into the global then the program would try to launch twice in this login which may cause problems).

Once you are done here, log back into the first login and open task manager and make sure that everything on your (now-expanded) list of necessary processes is running.

This may appear overly complicated but it can be very useful to become familiar with it.

Whew!

I hope this helps !!

 

Wow! tHANKS.
I printed it out and will give it a go tonite and let you know.
Wher would/should I have posted the Q?

Thanks again,
T

 

No Prob, glad to help.

The "Software & Services" forum is the catch-all one. I left this one here as two of the products you were concerned about were Javacool's and because I felt sorry about already having to remove one (and missing another entirely, I still have no idea where that one is )

Let us know if you develop more questions on this problem when you go through those steps later.

Luck

 

Hmm, there is something else I should have added that is useful when juggling account profiles

As long as both accounts have local admin rights on the machine you can

Rightclick on "Start" -> Explore All Users

Here you can navigate back and forth between each local profile as well as the all users profile. I, personally, prefer to be able to see all hidden folders (to allow access to the temp directories, etc.) so you may wish to change your folder view options accordingly.