Question about user accounts.

[Matt_Smi]

I have a question about my user account of Windows XP Home, I only have one user account and that is the administer account. Over the summer after I first re-installed windows I noticed that my name was not on the start menu, instead it said Owner. I renamed it to my name. But Owner is still around, for example if I go to C, Documents and Settings there should be a folder that has my name on it, but instead there is a folder that says Owner. Same with when I open the task manager and go to users, it says owner instead of Matt Smith. Is this because I am using the admin account as my main one, instead of a separate account under my name? Is there anyway to change it so my name appears instead of owner? Anyway it does not really bother me and it is not messing anything up, so I don’t really care, but I was just wondering about it. Thanks.

[GaryRouth]

Owner is the default Admistrator account for many OEM systems. There has to be at least one Administrator account on any XP computer. When you re-named the account, the folder names associated with that account did not change [they remained named "Owner"]. Had you added yourself as an Adminstrator account, you would have two sets of folders - one set named "Owner" and one set named "Matt Smith".

If you haven't already, boot into Safe Mode to double-check that there aren't actually two Administrator accounts. While in Safe Mode, you'll want to add passwords to any accounts that don't have a password [especially if you have broadband access to the Internet].

You should be OK just as you are now, as long as you remember to use passwords [and the other usual precautions: run a firewall, antispy/antivirus, and stay up-to-date with patches]. Adding users does take up a bit more space, since a new set of folders is created - but that's not much of an issue these days with the newer giant hard drives.
. . . Gary

[doctorgonzo]

Using the Administrator account as your day-to-day account is bad security. You should always create a separate, limited account that you use for your daily activities, and only log in as an Administrator when you need to do so.