Windows 2000 Administration in a Nutshell

Name

Users and Passwords

Synopsis

Creates and manages local users and passwords.

To Launch

Start → Settings → Control Panel → Users and Passwords

Description

On Windows 2000 Professional computers, Users and Passwords opens a property sheet with two tabs. The key settings here are:

Users

Adds a new local user account to your computer and specifies the local group to which the new user should belong. You can also change the group membership of existing accounts. If your computer belongs to a domain, you can grant a domain user account membership in one of your local groups to grant access privileges to the account for resources on your computer. Note that the list of user accounts displayed in the list box are the local user accounts on the computer, regardless of whether the computer belongs to a workgroup or a domain. You can change the password of any account you select in the list box.

Another setting you specify on this tab is whether you need a user account at all in order to use the computer. (Standalone, non-networked, Windows 2000 Professional computers have no need for a password if they are only being used by one individual and are physically secure.)

Advanced

Displays or adds digital certificates to the computer if a computer with Certificate Services is configured on your network. You can also open the Local Users and Groups snap-in to perform additional management of user and group accounts. See Local Users and Groups.

You can also require that users press Ctrl-Alt-Del to log ...