Chapter 14
IN THIS CHAPTER
Understanding user accounts
Adding, deleting, or changing user accounts
Signing in at the Sign In screen
Switching between users
Understanding passwords
Windows allows several people to share one computer, laptop, or tablet without letting anybody peek into anybody else’s personal files.
The secret? Windows grants each person their own user account, which neatly isolates that person’s files. When a person types in their user account name and password, the computer looks tailor-made just for them: It displays their personalized desktop background, menu choices, programs, and files — and it forbids them from seeing items belonging to other users.
This chapter explains how to set up a separate user account for everybody in your home, including the computer’s owner, family members, and roommates.
It also explains how to create accounts for children, which allows you to monitor their computer activity and set limits where you feel necessary.
Windows wants you to set up a user account for everybody who uses your PC. A user account works like a cocktail-party name tag that helps Windows recognize who’s sitting at the keyboard. Windows offers two types of user accounts: Administrator and Standard. (It also offers a special Standard account for children.)
To begin playing with the PC, people click their account’s name when the Windows Sign In screen first appears, as shown in Figure 14-1.
Who cares? Well, Windows gives each type of account permission to do different things on the computer. If the computer were a hotel, the Administrator account would belong to the desk clerk, and each tenant would have a Standard account. Here’s how the different accounts translate into computer lingo:
Here are some ways accounts are typically assigned when you’re sharing the same computer under one roof:
To keep others from signing in under your user account, you must protect it with a password. (I describe how to choose a password for your account in this chapter’s later “Setting Up Passwords and Security” section.)
Windows offers two slightly different ways to add user accounts. It separates them into the two types of people you’re most likely to add to your computer:
The next two sections describe how to create both types of accounts, as well as how to change existing accounts.
Adding a family member adds an important distinction to the account. If you add a child, the child’s activity is curtailed according to the limits you set. And if you add an adult, that person also has the ability to monitor the activity of any added children.
If you want to add an account that’s not involved in these family matters, choose the other option, called Adding an Account for Someone Else. There, you can create an account for a roommate or long-term guest.
Administrator account holders can create either type of account by following these steps:
When the Settings app appears, click the Accounts icon.
The Accounts screen appears, as shown in Figure 14-2, offering ways to change your own account, as well as add accounts for other people.
Click the words Family & Other Users
from the right pane.
The right pane of the Family and Other Users screen lets you create either of two accounts: one for a family member, or one for someone else. If you're creating an account for a family member, move to Step 4. If you’re not adding a relative, jump ahead to Step 5.
In the Add a Family Member section, click the Add Account button, and follow the steps to send the person an invitation.
A window appears, shown in Figure 14-3, asking for you to enter the person’s email address. You have several options:
No matter which option you choose, your invited family member, either a child or adult, will receive an email saying they’ve been invited to have a family account on your computer. After they accept the offer, they automatically appear as an account on your computer.
At this point, you’ve finished adding a family member. To add somebody who’s not a relative, move to Step 5.
Choose Add Someone Else to This PC.
Microsoft immediately complicates matters by displaying the How Will This Person Sign In window, shown in Figure 14-4, which asks for the new account holder’s email address.
Microsoft is trying to say that you can choose either of two types of accounts for your new account holder:
Can’t decide which type of account to create? Creating a Local account is always a safe bet. (Local account holders who want or need the advantages of a Microsoft account can upgrade to one at any time.)
Type the email address of the new account holder’s Microsoft account into the Email Address text box, click Next, and then click Finish.
The account will be waiting on the Sign In screen shown back in Figure 14-1.
When the person wants to use the computer, he chooses the account bearing his email address and then types in his Microsoft account password. Windows visits the internet, and if the email address and password match, the account is ready for action. You’ve finished.
Click the words I Don’t Have This Person’s Sign-In Information, shown at the bottom of Figure 14-4.
Alarmed that you’d consider choosing a lowly Local account over the wondrous Microsoft account, Microsoft tries to make you create a Microsoft account for the new account.
Click the Add a User Without a Microsoft Account link.
This tells Microsoft that yes, you really do want a Local account. (After all, Local account holders can always turn their account into a Microsoft account at any time.)
A new screen appears, asking for a name for the account (username), the account’s password, and a password hint in case you forget the password.
Enter a username, password, and password hint, and then click Next.
Use the person’s first name or nickname for the username. Choose a simple password and hint; the user can change them after they sign in.
Before you forget, tell the person their new username and password. (Or write them down and keep them in a secure place.) Their username will be waiting at the Sign In screen’s lower-left corner for them to begin using the computer.
The Windows Settings app lets you create a new account for a friend or family member, as described in the previous section. And it lets you tweak your own account, changing your account password or switching between a Microsoft or a Local account.
Administrators can even modify other accounts, changing them to Standard or Administrator accounts, or even deleting them completely.
But if you want to have more control than that — the ability to change an existing Local account’s name or password — you need the power of the desktop’s Control Panel.
To change an existing user’s Local account, follow these steps:
Click to open the Control Panel’s User Accounts category.
Click the User Accounts link, and then click the Manage Another Account link.
The Manage Accounts window appears, as shown in Figure 14-5, listing all the accounts on your computer.
Click the account you’d like to change.
Windows displays a page with the account’s photo and lets you tweak the account’s settings in any of these ways:
Delete the Account: Don’t choose this option hastily, because deleting somebody’s account also deletes all of that person’s files. If you do choose it, also choose the subsequent option that appears: Keep Files. That option places all of that person’s files in a folder on your desktop for safekeeping.
When you’re through, close the window by clicking the X in its upper-right corner.
Any changes made to a user’s account take place immediately.
Windows enables an entire family, roommates, or employees in a small office to share a single computer or tablet. The computer keeps track of everybody’s programs while different people use the computer. Mom can be playing chess and then let Jerry sign in to check his email. When Mom signs back in a few minutes later, her chess match is right where she left it, pondering the sacrifice of her rook.
Known as Fast User Switching, switching between users works quickly and easily. When somebody else wants to sign in to their account for a moment, perhaps to check email, follow these steps:
Open the Start menu.
To open the Start menu, click (or tap) the Start button or press the keyboard’s Windows key ().
Click your user account photo from along the screen’s left edge.
A menu pops up, as shown in Figure 14-6.
Choose the name of the user account holder who wants to sign in.
Windows leaves you signed in but immediately fetches the other person’s account, letting them type in their password.
When that person finishes with the computer, they can sign out just as you did in Step 2 — by clicking their user account photo in the Start menu’s left pane. This time, however, they’ll choose Sign Out. Windows closes down their session, letting you sign back in with your own password. And when Windows reappears, so does your work, just as you left it.
Signed In
beneath the name of each account holder who’s currently signed in.Don’t restart the PC while another person is still signed in, or that person will lose any work they haven’t saved. (Windows warns you before restarting the PC, giving you a chance to ask the other person to sign back in and save their work.)
Okay, now the important stuff: changing the boring picture that Windows automatically assigns to your user account. For every newly created user account, Windows chooses a generic silhouette. Feel free to change the picture to something more reflective of the Real You: You can snap a photo with your computer’s webcam or choose any photo in your Pictures folder.
To change your user account’s picture, head for the Start menu and click your picture along the menu’s left edge. When the menu drops down, choose Change Account Settings. Windows presents the screen shown in Figure 14-7.
The Accounts page lets you change your picture two main ways:
Pictures
folder. Then click the Browse Files button in the Choose a File section, mentioned earlier in this section, to locate the picture and assign it as your account photo. (Right-click the internet picture and, depending on your web browser, choose Save Image As or a similar menu option.)There’s not much point to having a user account if you don’t have a password. Without one, a snoop from the neighboring cubicle or even another family member can click your account on the Sign In screen and peek through your files.
People with administrator accounts, especially, should have passwords. If they don’t, they’re automatically letting anybody wreak havoc with the PC: When a permission’s screen appears, asking for a protective password, anybody can just press Enter to gain entrance.
Microsoft account holders must change their passwords online by visiting https://account.microsoft.com
. Local account holders can create or change a password by following these steps:
The familiar Accounts window appears, shown earlier in Figure 14-2, where you can add other accounts, change your own, and perform other account-related chores.
Choose the Sign-in Options link from the Accounts window’s right edge.
The Sign-In Options screen appears, listing all the ways you may log into your computer.
Click the Password option on the window’s right side; when the menu drops down, click the Change button.
People who haven’t created a password should instead click the Create a Password button.
Make up an easy-to-remember password, and type it into the New Password text box. Then retype the same characters into the Retype Password text box below it, and click Next.
Retyping the password eliminates the chance of typos.
Changing an existing password works slightly differently: The screen shows a Current Password box where you must first type your existing password. (That keeps pranksters from sneaking over and changing your password during lunch hours.)
You can find out more about passwords in Chapter 2.
Password-protected accounts help keep your account secure, both from seedy strangers on the internet and from people nearby. But very few people enjoy stopping their flow to type in a password — if they can even remember it.
Windows tries to solve that problem with its Windows Hello technology. Windows Hello lets you skip bothersome passwords and log in securely in less than a second. By attaching either a compatible camera or a fingerprint reader to your computer, you can log in with the swipe of a finger or a glance at the camera.
Many new laptops and PCs now include built-in Windows Hello compatible readers and cameras; if yours doesn’t, you can buy one that plugs in to your computer’s USB port.
To set up Windows Hello, follow these steps:
The Settings app’s Accounts page appears.
Click Sign-In Options from the left pane.
The screen shows your options for signing in to your account, shown in Figure 14-8. If you don’t see an option to set up Windows Hello, make sure your compatible fingerprint reader or camera is plugged in to your computer and fully installed.
Click the Set Up button for either the fingerprint reader or camera, and follow the instructions.
Windows walks you through scanning either your fingerprint (any finger will do, as long as you use that finger consistently when you want to sign in to your account), iris, or face. You may need to create a PIN, a four-digit number that adds an additional layer of security for special circumstances.