CompTIA A_ Certification All-In-One Exam Guide, Seventh Edition - Michael Meyers [266]
Windows Vista has an obvious option in the Tasks list to Create a password reset disk. You’ll need to have a floppy disk inserted or a USB flash drive to create the disk.
Groups
A group is simply a collection of accounts that share the same access capabilities. A single account can be a member of multiple groups. Groups are essential for managing a network of computers but also can come in handy on a single computer with multiple users.
Groups make Windows administration much easier in two ways. First, you can assign a certain level of access for a file or folder to a group instead of to just a single user account. For example, you can make a group called Accounting and put all of the accounting user accounts in that group. If a person quits, you don’t need to worry about assigning all of the proper access levels when you create a new account for his or her replacement. After you make an account for the new person, you just add the new account to the appropriate access group! Second, Windows provides numerous built-in groups with various access levels already predetermined. As you might imagine, there are differences among the versions.
Groups in Windows 2000 Windows 2000 provides seven built-in groups: Administrators, Power Users, Users, Backup Operators, Replicator, Everyone, and Guests. These built-in groups have a number of preset capabilities. You cannot delete these groups.
Administrators Any account that is a member of the Administrators group has complete administrator privileges. It is common for the primary user of a Windows system to have her account in the Administrators group.
Power Users Members of the Power Users group are almost as powerful as Administrators, but they cannot install new devices or access other users’ files or folders unless the files or folders specifically provide them access.
Users Members of the Users group cannot edit the Registry or access critical system files. They can create groups, but can manage only those they create.
Backup Operators Backup operators have the same rights as users, except that they can run backup programs that access any file or folder—for backup purposes only.
Replicator Members of the Replicator group can replicate files and folders in a domain.
Everyone This group applies to any user who can log on to the system. You cannot edit this group.
Guests Enabling the Guests group lets someone who does not have an account on the system to log on by using a guest account. You might use this feature at a party, for example, to provide casual Internet access to guests, or at a library terminal. Most often, the guest account remains disabled for every version of Windows.
Groups in Windows XP Windows XP diverges a lot from Windows 2000 on user accounts. If you’re running XP Professional and you are on a Windows domain, XP offers all of the accounts listed previously, but it adds other specialized groups, including HelpServicesGroup and Remote Desktop Users. Windows XP Home and XP Professional, when installed as a standalone PC or connected to a workgroup but not a domain, run in a specialized networking mode called simple file sharing. A Windows XP system running simple file sharing has only three account types: computer administrator, limited user, and guest. Computer administrators can do anything, as you might suspect. Limited users can access only certain things and have limits on where they can save files on the PC. The guest account is disabled by default but works the same way as in Windows 2000.
Groups in Windows Vista The professional editions of Windows Vista (Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise) offer the same groups found in Windows XP Professional and throw in a lot more. Some of