Dave’s Answer:

Smart solution to a common dilemma, whether it’s a computer you’re loaning to a relative (very nice of you!) or a PC that your kids use occasionally. Instead of worrying about them installing software, messing with your files and data and even reading your email, just set them up with their own user accounts.

Turns out you can do this quite easily on just about every modern operating system available, including Mac OS X, Linux and, of course, Microsoft Windows. Win7 makes it super easy too, once you know where to look.

Before you proceed I’d suggest that you spend a minute or two thinking about how many accounts you want to set up, what user names would be most easily remembered, and whether any of the users need to have administrative access or not. If you give them admin access on a Windows laptop, for example, they can change the configuration, add additional user accounts and install new software. If you just give them a regular user account (what I recommend) then they’re just a “user” and can’t do anything that an administrator would do. Makes your system safer and much more likely to return fully functional!

To get started, go to “Control Panels” from the Start menu. It’ll look like this:

Article Continued Here

This post is excerpted with permission from Dave Taylor.

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About Ask Dave Taylor

PC Pitstop is proud to welcome Dave Taylor as a guest contributor. Dave splits time between free tech support on AskDaveTaylor, film reviews on the popular DaveOnFilm.com site, parenting discussions on Go Fatherhood and business, marketing and industry analysis at The Business Blog@ Intuitive.com. Along with a zillion other things.

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