Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual

Start→Log Off

This command is at the heart of Windows XP’s accounts feature, in which each person who uses this PC gets to see his own desktop picture, email account, files, and so on (see Chapter 16). If you don’t use that feature—if you’re the only one who uses the computer—you can safely ignore this option forever.

Choosing this command may present either of two dialog boxes, depending on whether or not you have turned on the Windows XP feature called Fast User Switching.

• Switch User/Log Off. If you see the dialog box shown at the top of Figure 2-4, then Fast User Switching is turned on (as it is on any fresh installation of Windows XP Home Edition). It’s among the most useful new features in Windows XP, since it lets somebody else log on to the computer, opening up his own world of documents, email, desktop picture, and so on. Meanwhile,—whatever you had up and running remains open behind the scenes. After the interloper is finished, you can log on again to find all of your open programs and documents exactly where you left them on the screen.

  

  Figure 2-4. Top: If Fast User Switching is turned on, this is what you see when you choose Start→Log Off. No matter which button you click, you return to the Welcome screen. The only difference is that clicking Switch User leaves all of your programs open and in memory, and Log Off takes a few moments to close them. Bottom: If Fast User ...