130 Chapter 3 • Exploring the Windows XP User Interface Q: The Quick Launch area from which I could click a button and get back to the desktop has disappeared. How do I get it back? A: To restore any of the Taskbar toolbars, right-click the taskbar, select Toolbars, and click the ones that you wish to display.To restore the Quick Launch toolbar, right-click the taskbar, select Properties, and select the checkbox Show Quick Launch. Q: How do I display the system time on my taskbar? A: Right-click the taskbar, select Properties, and select Show the system clock. Q: How do I quickly see what storage devices I have in my system? A: Open My Computer and it will immediately display any local floppy, hard, and removable disks. It will also show any mapped network drives. Q: I’ve been using the Windows Classic look and customized my folder settings. Now it is difficult to see things clearly. How can I get things back to the way they were? A: Change the appearance to Windows XP style and then back again to Classic style.This will restore the settings. Q: My screen resolution is set to 1024x768, but I have poor eyesight. How can I change it to 640x480? A: Right-click the desktop, select Properties, and then the Settings tab.You can change the desktop screen resolution here. However, your systems admin- istrators may have group policies implemented that prevent you doing this. www.syngress.com Frequently Asked Questions The following Frequently Asked Questions, answered by the authors of this book, are designed to both measure your understanding of the concepts presented in this chapter and to assist you with real-life implementation of these concepts. To have your questions about this chapter answered by the author, browse to www.syngress.com/solutions and click on the “Ask the Author” form. 189_XP_03.qxd 11/9/01 2:30 PM Page 130 Exploring the Windows XP User Interface • Chapter 3 131 Q: I’m responsible for supporting laptop users in my company. I often get com- plaints when issuing new laptops about how difficult it is for them to read text. How can I improve things? A: Right-click the desktop, select Properties, and then the Appearance tab. Click Effects… and check that the Screen fonts are enabled and set to use ClearType. This will greatly improve the display quality and readability of text for laptop users. www.syngress.com 189_XP_03.qxd 11/9/01 2:30 PM Page 131 189_XP_03.qxd 11/9/01 2:30 PM Page 132 Managing Windows XP Professional Solutions in this chapter: ■ Creating Users and Groups ■ Sharing Folders ■ Managing Storage ■ Managing Devices ■ Using the Event Viewer ■ Understanding Performance Logs ; Summary ; Solutions Fast Track ; Frequently Asked Questions Chapter 4 133 189_XP_04.qxd 11/9/01 2:47 PM Page 133 134 Chapter 4 • Managing Windows XP Professional Introduction Many people today have been exposed to some version of Windows.Whether you enjoy working on computers or not, most jobs require that you use a com- puter to some extent. One of the goals of XP is to make an operating system that is easier for nontechnical people to use and manage. XP is a great platform for “power users”—users that know the ins and outs of Windows—and “novice users” alike. In this chapter, we discuss the concepts of managing Windows XP Professional. First, we look at creating users and groups in XP.This is an administration task required to manage permissions on a local Windows XP machine. Instead of creating new users and groups, we can use the built-in accounts, such as Administrator and Guest.The built-in users and groups have predefined permis- sions.We examine the permissions assigned to these accounts by default in addi- tion to how and when to change the defaults.We discuss how to make shared folders and when to use them.We touch on managing storage and devices.This includes topics such as basic disks, dynamic disks, volumes, partitions, and file sys- tems. Lastly, we discuss troubleshooting by using the Event Viewer and Performance Logs. Creating Users and Groups Every time you use your Windows XP machine, you must provide a valid user account to log in and access the local machine.This user account must have the appropriate permissions to use the machine or access will be denied.You can assign permissions directly to the user account, or you can assign them to groups. When assigning permissions to groups, you affect all of the users within the group. In this section, we define the different types of user accounts and groups available.We also learn how to create and manage each type of user and group. What Are User Accounts? What exactly is a user account? Think of it as your passport to access resources, such as printers and files.Windows XP requires mandatory logon, which means that to interact with your machine, you must have a valid user account and pass- word. Depending on the types of resources you want to access—local or net- work—you need either a local user account or a domain user account. www.syngress.com 189_XP_04.qxd 11/9/01 2:47 PM Page 134 www.syngress.com Local User Accounts Local user accounts are just that,“local” to the machine that you are logging into. Every XP machine maintains its own database. If you were logging into XP’s database, it would mean that you are logging on to the local computer, or logging on locally.A local user account gives you rights that are associated only with that specific machine, and not the entire network. Remember:“Local” means just that, local to the machine you are logging into. Table 4.1 shows the default user accounts provided by Windows XP Professional during installation.The two accounts created are Administrator and Guest. Exercise 4.1 walks you through creating local users. Table 4.1 Default Local User Accounts Provided with Windows XP Professional Account Account Function Administrator The Administrator account is the first account you will ever use to log into Windows XP. Once you log in, you may create new accounts and begin to configure your work- station. A few important features of the Administrator account are that you can never delete or disable it nor can you remove it from the Local Administrators group. However, you can rename the account. Guest The Guest account is used by users who do not have an actual account on the workstation for them to log in with, so they can log in as guests. The Guest account does not have a password. The Guest account is disabled by default so you need to enable it to use it. NOTE One good way to secure your machine up is to create a “dummy” Administrator account. Rename the actual Administrator account, set up a new account called “administrator” with limited rights, and audit it carefully. Now you can see if someone is trying to break into your machine by using the Administrator account. Managing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 4 135 189_XP_04.qxd 11/9/01 2:47 PM Page 135 136 Chapter 4 • Managing Windows XP Professional Exercise 4.1 Creating Local User Accounts with the Computer Management Console To create a local user, you must first navigate to the Computer Management MMC: 1. Navigate to the Computer Management applet in your administrative tools program group (Start | Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Computer Management). 2. Expand System Tools in Computer Management; you will see the Local Users and Groups Icon. 3. Expand Local Users and Groups.You will see two folders, Users and Groups. Figure 4.1 shows these folders. 4. Right-click the Users folder and select the option New User…. This will bring you to the New User dialog box shown in Figure 4.2. www.syngress.com Figure 4.1 Local Users and Groups within the Computer Management Console 189_XP_04.qxd 11/9/01 2:47 PM Page 136 Managing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 4 137 5. Supply the following information: ■ User name The name that will be used by this account to log on. ■ Full name The actual name of the user (this may be different from the user name). ■ Description Adds other details about the user or account (such as what floor the user works on). 6. Enter the password and confirm it. 7. Check the desired account options: ■ User must change password at logon Requires the user to enter a new password when he logs on. ■ User cannot change password Makes it impossible for the user to change her password. ■ Password never expires Ensures that the password does not have to be constantly changed by the user. ■ Account is disabled Disables the account, preventing it from being used by anyone trying to log on.This is not the same as deleting the account, because it still exists, but it is technically inoperable. 8. To finish, click Create, and the new user account will be created. www.syngress.com Figure 4.2 New User Properties Dialog Box 189_XP_04.qxd 11/9/01 2:47 PM Page 137 138 Chapter 4 • Managing Windows XP Professional NOTE One thing to remember is that the minimum password age is set by default to 0 days, and the maximum password age by default is 42 days. If this is inappropriate for your organization, you can change it in the Local Security Settings dialog box. Go to Start | Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Local Security Policy | Security Settings and expand down to Password Policy. In the contents pane (right-hand side) of Local Security Settings, you will see the default settings. Double-click the settings to change them to what is appropriate for your security policy. The new account will appear in the contents pane of the MMC.To find more options or to change other options on your new user, simply right-click new user for a pop-up menu of options, including the following: ■ Set password ■ Rename ■ Delete ■ Properties One thing you may want to investigate is the user’s properties. Clicking on the Properties field allows you to apply a few more important options for this user.You will find the following two new tabs: ■ Member of Allows you to add specific groups to the user account you have created (groups are covered in the next section). ■ Profile tab (shown in Figure 4.3) The Profile path field assigns the profile used by your new Local User account upon logon to the machine.The Logon script field assigns a batch file–based login script. The Home Folder section sets the user account to a local path for its home folder or maps the user account to a home folder on a network share.A home folder is where users should save all of their data. Remember, it is best to have all data in one centralized area so that it can easily be located and backed up. Let’s look at another way to create a user account. First, we have to get to the command prompt, which is a 32-bit program that runs text-based commands. It looks like DOS (Disk Operating System), but it is not DOS. It is called www.syngress.com 189_XP_04.qxd 11/9/01 2:47 PM Page 138 Managing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 4 139 Command (abbreviated CMD) and can be run from the Run dialog box. Click Start | Run. From the Run dialog box, type in the CMD and click OK.Typing net and pressing E NTER will give you the window shown in Figure 4.4. Figure 4.4 shows all of the possible options used with the net command.To see a list of options (including the correct syntax) for creating a user, run the fol- lowing command from the command prompt: NET USER /HELP www.syngress.com Figure 4.3 A User Account’s Profile Tab Figure 4.4 The Command Prompt 189_XP_04.qxd 11/9/01 2:47 PM Page 139 [...]... the world of Windows with Windows 95 OSR2 (a.k.a Window 95B) It became a standard with Windows 98 and has followed all versions of Windows (minus Windows NT 4.0) since .Windows XP Professional is no different It also has support for FAT32 Here are some points to consider when dealing with FAT32: s FAT32 will increase the amount of free disk space because of its smaller cluster size s FAT32 is not limited... creating a user account from the command prompt www.syngress.com 149 189 _XP_ 04.qxd 150 11/9/01 2:47 PM Page 150 Chapter 4 • Managing Windows XP Professional Exercise 4.7 Creating and Deleting Local Groups from the Command Prompt 1 Display the available options for the NET command Open a commend prompt and type net /? 2 You will see an option for localgroup.Type net localgroup and you will see the currently... local groups, and they are used in the same manner as XP s local groups The difference is that an XP local group is unique to the standalone XP machine Domain local groups are unique to the domain in which they belong In addition to domain local groups and global groups, domains also have another type of group www.syngress.com 189 _XP_ 04.qxd 11/9/01 2:47 PM Page 151 Managing Windows XP Professional •... Shared Folder in XP How do you monitor all the shares on your machine? You can monitor shares in a variety of ways.The easiest method is to view them within the Computer Management console, as shown Figure 4.12 Open Computer Management www.syngress.com 1 53 189 _XP_ 04.qxd 154 11/9/01 2:47 PM Page 154 Chapter 4 • Managing Windows XP Professional and expand System Tools, then Shared folders, and then the Shares... Expand System Tools, expand Local Users and Groups, and then expand the Groups folder 2 Right-click the Groups folder and select New Group from the menu This will give you the window shown in Figure 4.8 Figure 4.8 Creating a Group in the New Group Dialog Box www.syngress.com 189 _XP_ 04.qxd 11/9/01 2:47 PM Page 149 Managing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 4 3 Type in a Group name A good rule of thumb... (entering a password if needed), and he is logged on Disabling the Welcome screen returns the Ctrl+Alt+Delete logon box www.syngress.com 189 _XP_ 04.qxd 11/9/01 2:47 PM Page 1 43 Managing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 4 Figure 4.6 Selecting Logon and Logoff Options Enabling the Welcome screen is a requirement for Fast User Switching Fast User Switching is a new feature in Windows XP It is available only when... command prompt (Start | Run) and type CMD Click OK 2 To see the syntax for the net share command, type NET SHARE /? at the command prompt and press Enter 3 Typing NET SHARE and hitting Enter will shows what resources are currently shared www.syngress.com 189 _XP_ 04.qxd 11/9/01 2:47 PM Page 157 Managing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 4 4 First, type in the following syntax: NET SHARE C$ /delete.You will... SHARE at the command prompt) Now that we have successfully deleted the C$ share, we need to put it back: 1 Go back to the command prompt 2 Type NET SHARE C$=C: and then press Enter 3 Type NET SHARE to view that it was shared out again Now that we can create and delete shares from the command prompt, let’s practice doing the same thing from within the GUI Open Computer Management and expand down until... Computer Management and expand System Tools and click the Shared Folders icon Click the Sessions folder to view the www.syngress.com 189 _XP_ 04.qxd 11/9/01 2:47 PM Page 161 Managing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 4 open sessions or connected users that are using your shared resources.You can easily right-click a particular one or right-click a blank spot in the contents pane of the MMC and select Disconnect... Computer Management www.syngress.com 189 _XP_ 04.qxd 11/9/01 2:47 PM Page 141 Managing Windows XP Professional • Chapter 4 Exercise 4 .3 Deleting Local User Accounts by Using the Command Line 1 Go back to the command prompt and type NET USER newuser1 /DELETE 2 This will delete the newly created user.To verify that the user account was deleted, maximize Computer Management and refresh the right side contents . users. www.syngress.com 189 _XP_ 03. qxd 11/9/01 2 :30 PM Page 131 189 _XP_ 03. qxd 11/9/01 2 :30 PM Page 132 Managing Windows XP Professional Solutions in this chapter: ■ Creating Users and Groups ■ Sharing. to www.syngress.com/solutions and click on the “Ask the Author” form. 189 _XP_ 03. qxd 11/9/01 2 :30 PM Page 130 Exploring the Windows XP User Interface • Chapter 3 131 Q: I’m responsible for supporting. Viewer ■ Understanding Performance Logs ; Summary ; Solutions Fast Track ; Frequently Asked Questions Chapter 4 133 189 _XP_ 04.qxd 11/9/01 2:47 PM Page 133 134 Chapter 4 • Managing Windows XP Professional Introduction Many