Simple steps on how to manage user accounts in Windows 7

Windows 7 has a lot of great features, one of them is the simplicity on how to manage user accounts.

User accounts makes easier to share a computer with more than one person while keeping it personalized with unique settings and preferences for each user, such as personal account information, favorites, desktop background, themes, etc. It also enables to control who has access to which files & folders, and which changes the user can make. In Windows 7 there are 3 types of user accounts, each one with a different set of rights or access level, Standard user (everyday user), Administrator (top access level), and Guest (minimal access level, recommended for temporary computer access).

Today we are going to review about 8 ‘How-Tos’ to learn the basics on how to manage Windows 7 user accounts.

Before we begin, we are going to spend some time in the User Accounts section. So next are the steps to get there.

1  Click Start , do a search for “user accounts”.

2  In the search result, under Control Panel select User Accounts.

How to create a password for your account

1  In User Accounts click Create a password for your account.

2 Under your username account type a password you would like to use, repeat the password to confirm, and type a password hint. Note, the hint will be available to everyone, make sure that the hint is easy for your to guess the password in case you forget, but not too easy for other people to figure it out.

3  To finish, click Create password.

How to create a password reset disk

It is a good idea, after you setup a password, to create a password reset disk in case you forget or the hint ends up not helping you to remember.

To do this, follow these easy steps:

1  In User Accounts click Create a password reset disk.

2  Click Next, select the drive to save the password key and click Next.

3 Type your current password, click Next and Finish.

Note: You only need to create a reset disk once. It doesn’t matter if you change the password again; the reset disk that you initially created will work.

How to change your account name

1  In User Accounts click Change your account name.

2 Next, under your username type the new account name and click Change Name.

Try to use the Change your account name feature only when necessary or if for any reason you don’t like the current name. But if your computer belonged to someone else, it may be better to create a new account from the current account with the administrator option — very important –. Log off, log back in with the new created account, go back to User Accounts and delete the old user account. This way the settings and preferences in the account will be unique to you.

How to change picture account

1  In User Accounts click Change Your Picture.

2  Select a picture from the default list or click Browse from more pictures… link, browse and locate a picture that you like, and click Open to finish.

How to create a new account

1 In User Accounts click Manage another account.

2 Next, Click on Create a new account.

3  Type the new account name.

4 Choose between Standard user and Administrator. The difference between these two types of user accounts is that with the Standard user can do almost everything the Administrator can, but if the Standard user tries to modify something that could affect other users, like installing a program or changing some settings, Windows 7 will ask for permission from an Administrator user.

5  And click Create Account.

How to delete a user account

1  In User Accounts click Manage another account.

2  Select the account you wish to delete and click Delete the account. Also, from here you can manage other settings as well, such as remove the user account password, set up parental controls, change account type, etc.

3  Choose whether or not to keep the files from the account is about to be deleted and click Delete Files or Keep Files.

4 Click Delete Account to finish.

How to turn on Guest Account

Guest Account was designed to allow people without an account to login and use your computer to do minimal things. And don’t worry, password protected files, folders, or settings cannot be access or modify by this account, but only enable Guest Account when needed, then turn it off again.

This is how is done:

In User Accounts click Manage another account, select Guest and click Turn on. To turn off the Guest account do the same thing, but this time click Turn off the guest account.

How to Change User Account Control Settings (UAC)

UAC is a feature in Windows that was introduced in Windows Vista. This feature was intended to help protect from malicious program to make unwanted changes to your computer, but it is not perfect and sometimes it could be a little bit annoying when installing software or making changes. If you are not an experience user, it would not be recommended to turn it off, but if you want to make it less annoying, here are the steps.

1  In User Accounts click Manage another account.

2  In Manage Accounts click Change User Account Control Settings.

3  Choose when to be notified about changes to your computer and click OK.

• To turn off UAC, move the slider to Never notify and you will need to restart your computer for the setting to take effect.

Here is the User Account Control notification in Windows 7 that you are controlling with this settings:

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