Should I log on as administrator?

[indigo0086]

I'm speaking of Windows XP. It's my personal computer and no one else uses it, but I've heard some stray sayings about it not being entirely safe if you stay logged on as admin. Is this true? What harm could come of being administrator?

[juppy]

It's more of a danger if you're on a network really, because then other people on the same network could get into your computer and do alot of damage if they were so inclined, with the admin account being the active one. Things like deleting other user accounts on the machine and such. That's the only real problem that I know of.....just because the admin account has "all the power" to change things in the machine. If it's just your own computer though and its not on a network, I wouldn't think there would be a big problem with it. I could be wrong though and somebody else might know of other reasons.

[glc]

Well, it also makes it easier for hackers from outside to get in and do mischief. If you are behind a router and have the XP firewall enabled - with a carefully configured exception list - that will minimize the risk.

[indigo0086]

Do you recommend any good free firewall programs. I installed Linux on friday and have come to like the "access on demand" type of security the distribution has, but don't want to keep logging out back and forth like in windows.

[mairving]

Using a computer with non-admin access at home will cause you more problems to get everything to work right then any virus could. Microsoft even sets up their employees with local admin access rights on their computers so that should tell you something. Vista will change this since even someone with admin rights will have to approve system changes before they take place.

[CuRoi]

I have a home network whose only members are my wife and myself. I'm not worried about her getting into my computer -- after 43 years she's perfectly familiar with all of my sinful tendencies. We have a LinkSys router with hw firewall and both keep the XP firewall activated as well.

Nevertheless, having read several warnings against surfing from an admin acct, I created one a few months ago and reduced my regular acct to "limited." But I've changed it back, because the inconveniences were much more trouble than the additional margin of security was worth. I wanted to use the main account all the time, except to install software, because I often consult the Web while working, and didn't want to keep switching back and forth just for that. But my backup program informed me that only administrators could do backup, so I had to move that function.

Several other programs seemed oblivious to the fact that, while there were two accounts, there was only one computer. The MSI utility I rely on to keep track of temperature and fan speed would operate only in the admin zone -- in my now limited main acct, not only could I not use it to check the temperature, but every time I logged on it would try to start up, fail, and deliver a series of messages whose severe tone ("Core Center does not support your motherboard!") reminded me of the fierce Chinese math professor who nearly ruined my freshman year.

The spyware protection program informed me repeatedly that the last sweep was more than 7 days old, even though it was being done weekly in the other account.

True, most programs had no trouble working in both accounts, regardless of which one they had originally been installed in, but there was no way to persuade the stubborn ones to see the light, and last month I finally quit. Now I have two admin accts. I've never had a hacker problem since setting up the broadband connection (with router). I'd rather take the marginal extra risk than take even one step back toward the days when I had to keep swapping floppy disks to run a CPM word-processing program. (Yes, we do get spoiled.)

CuRoi

[juppy]

The hardware firewall (router) is one of the best things you can have as far as protection goes. By running both that and having the XP firewall activated, I wouldn't bother with setting up the other user accounts and just stay on the admin account all the time. If a hacker can break through both of those firewalls, then he's likely not going to have a hard time breaking into your admin account anyway. Looks like you're protected pretty good.