Help! Stoopid Windows XP help.
 

I'm using a Windows box for the first time at work. I need to restrict access because of confidentiality laws. How do I set up my computer so that no one can access it but me? Must be simple, but I can't find it.

I'm assuming you're NOT using Active Directory(logging onto a network)...

Start > Control Panel > User Accounts....

You're looking for "Change The Way User's Log on..."

From there, you'll want to set a password for your account. It's pretty straight forward, once you get to the correct spot.

Randy

You can also set a password in the Bios so it won't boot up. Also set a screensaver password in case you walk away and leave the machine logged in that it will require a password to access.

Of course, if someone has physical access to the machine, there's not a lot you can do to keep 'em out. Also, look out for unknown drive shares, etc -

The biggest concern in my book would be drive sharing. Windows does nasty things with that -- I discovered my machine was sharing a couple of folders in some obscure subdirectory of Windows for read/write access with no password -- by default, when my room-mate was browsing the network. Any Joe could have browsed on in, dropped a gig or so of random files on my drive, and shared whatever he wanted with the world from there.

Lesson learned: periodically check your machine to ensure you're not sharing anything you don't want to share. Go to Network Neighborhood and find yourself, or look up your own machine using the windows search function (start-find-computer, or something to that effect). You can get your network identifying features (like machine name) under Control Panel / Network Settings.

Good luck with that windows nastiness. Let us know how it comes out.

Dan

Just a few things;

Require Users to log in - no auto logon functions.

Require users to lock the console before they walk away and if they can't be responsible enough to do that set the screen saver with a 2 minute threashold of inactivity requiring a password to unlock.

If you want to go deeper - make sure the built in firewall is on and that no incoming connections are accepted (the default value).

SP2 is a good next step as it make administering the firewall easier.

IS it XP Home or pro?

It's XP Pro. I've been pretty happy with it. I have used Macs at home for years and use the new Winbox at work.

XP is a huge improvement over the previous OS I used. I am using Norton Internet Security and NoAdware. Amazing how many viruses I get. I'm starting to feel like Dennis Rodman.

I've got the whole system password locked now. I'll get to work on the file sharing. Great advice and help as always. Thanks!

With the firewall active you shouldn't have to worry about locking down the shares. As long as the firewall is blocking everything.

If you want I can send you the Center for Internet Security's benchmarks for Windows XP security (recommended things to do to be secure). It is likely more than you need and not all of the items are simple but it's cool none the less to know what things CAN be done.

If it's really important you can also encrypt the folder that has your data (or the entire disk drive) to prevent someone just moving the drive to another pc. encryption will also slow the system a little for disk access and will make it bloody hard to recover if you have a system failure.