Chapter 6: Sharing Your Computer with Multiple Users

What Password Protection Does Windows Offer?

Windows has many different resources that can be password protected. The major passwords are the following:

• User password The password for your user account. You type it when you start up Windows or switch from one user to another, if your computer has user accounts for which passwords have been created. You can change your password at any time. Windows also stores a password hint--a word or phrase that would remind you of your password if you forget it, but that wouldn't give the password away to anyone else. If you are truly concerned about forgetting your password (we always are!), you can also create a password reset disk, a floppy disk that you can use to log on to your user account even if you forget your password.

You have the option to not have a password. Simply choose not to enter one when prompted by the Windows XP Setup Wizard, or remove the password later. Regardless of your choice, if you plan on being the only user of your computer you can opt to automatically log into your machine. Just make sure you aren't offering free access to sensitive data to unauthorized individuals.

• Domain password The password used to validate your user name to host computers on a local area network that is controlled by Windows .NET Server, Windows .NET Advanced Server, Windows 2000 Server, Windows NT, or compatible LAN servers. If your domain password is missing or invalid, you can't gain access to disks or printers on the LAN.
• Encrypted ZIP compressed folders You can assign a password to a ZIP compressed folders.
• NTFS encryption password for a file or folder In Windows XP Professional (not the Home Edition), you can assign a password to files and folders stored in NTFS partitions. Encryption isn't available on FAT32 partitions.

This chapter describes how to create user passwords to secure your computer and your My Documents folder. See Chapter 31 for additional information if your computer is on a LAN. See Windows .NET Server: The Complete Reference for how to create domain accounts and passwords.