When Creating a Limited Account On XP Turned Out Well

When our desktop got a trojan horse virus I had to reformat the hard drive and this time I created a limited account for myself, my beautiful queen, our grandchildren. I'm not going to lie, running with the limited account on XP can sometimes be a pain in the neck but I have heard computer professional constantly advise doing this because in corporate America they do this all the time and I have heard Leo Laporte mention when surfing the web you really should do this unless you really know what you are doing when on the web. It came in handy this past weekend.

Our grandson loves the web. He loves going on Nickelodeon, The Disney website, YouTube from time to time and he finds games to play on the web so him surfing the web was no difference than any other weekend. But when my the wifey tried to open IE (Internet Explorer) or even her "My Documents" she could not open it. I tried time and time again and couldn't do it. I logged out of her account and into administration mode and IE opened up just fine so that means either our grandson did something or something happened when he was on the web. So what I did was ran my anti-virus and anti spyware first on wifey's files (no infections thank goodness), burned a couple of her files on CD, deleted her limited account and created another limited account for her...problem solved.

Now if I would have not created a limited account and left everyone in administration mode I would have had to find out why IE would not open, why I couldn't access the "My Documents" folder, it would have been a nightmare, and I would not have been a happy camper so creating a limited account, especially when surfing the web was a life saver and a lesson for me because this time I did the right thing and not being stubborning when it came to creating limited accounts. Are they a pain at times to use in XP...yes. Was it worth it this time, yes it was. In Vista it's much better when running in limited account mode because Macs has ran they computers this way for years now because with Macs you can not install anything without giving the password for your system.

My advise for anyone who has young people, if you want your system to be more stable and not worry about having to reformat your computer set up "Limited Accounts" for yourself and your children when surfing the web. It will save you heartache in the end.