Passwords on XP

[Fieldcrest]

I've read some guides that insist on good passwords for the administrator account (not named as such) on XP. That I understand.

Do you folks think its equally necessary to have passwords on all of the other users (even if they don't have administrator privileges)? For example, my wife doesn't want to bother with a password, I don't care unless somehow this will compromise my system. Also, does the BIOS also need a password?

Any thoughts on this for a newbie would be much appreciated.

[pam123]

How many people use the computer?
If it's just you and your wife then it doesn't matter you can both just log in as users and only the admin account can be used to install programs and so on (not that that's an excuse to be careless).
If it's you, your wife, your kids, and various guests and the accounts have different restrictions (power user, user, guest and you're running something like NetNanny), then passwords are necessary.

[Panama Red]

Keep in mind that password protected files aren't scanned with Antivirus/Antispyware programs. Each user has to log on and run the scans to maintain a clean machine. I discourage password usage in a home environment for that reason.