[LisaR3]

Hi, this is my first post here. We got a new computer a few months ago, one with Windows XP. My son, who has his own laptop, set me up as the Administrator. My husband, who thinks he knows a lot about computers,but DOES NOT, has been entering the Temporary Internet file, and Cookie file, and deleting things without I imagine, even completely understanding what he is doing. The other night, he deleted some things while my 16 year old daughter was in the room, and she tried to get him to stop because she said , although she couldn't see the whole thing, a box popped up that said removing this might be harmful to the computer. My husband still removed it, telling her he "Knew what he was doing." The next day, I had numerous problems with the computer, including an inability to get a dial up connection, once I did get one, I could not get a lot of our pages to open, and several other things. My son ran Ad Aware, Spybot, and Clean Up, in case we had gotten something on the computer, but it didn't help, and he had to do a Systems Restore. My daughter then told us that my husband had been removing things from the computer. My son said to check here, and see if there was anyway I could add those files to the ones that only the Administrator could tinker with. A friend of his online last night said for me to just drag those items into my Administrator files, but my son was not sure if this would work, and doesn't want us to screw around with the files if it wasn't safe. Is there a way to keep my husband out of those files? How would I set it up? Thank you. Lisa

 

[JohnthePilot]

My, you do seem to be having problems. :grin: The answer to your question is that you can only protect folders that are in your user profile. Folders such as Internet Temporary Files and Cookies are common folders and therefore accessible to anyone. However, deleting files from these folders is unlikely to cause the problems you describe. I routinely clear out my temp files and cookies. It just means that for those websites where, for example, passwords are needed, you will have to re-enter them rather than it being done automatically, but it wouldn't stop access to sites. It's more likely that system or program files are being altered or deleted. If your husband is a restricted user, he shouldn't be able to alter these. If you've got problems with your computer you can try doing a system restore. Do you know how to do this?

 

[92b16vx]

I'd create a new user account and only give him normal user rights, then reset your admin account password.

 

[throoper]

Hi Lisa,
John is right about the Temp and cookie files. The only effect might be a slowdown in pages loading if you have an accelerator with your dial-up.
The symptoms you described could be your dial-up provider. They gave me a flashback to my own dial-up experience.:grin:
As for setting up a limited user account, he will pout and be impossible to live with.He's not 10, he will just act like it. You might be better off backing up your system (just in case) and monitoring what he does until you're sure he either does know what he's doing or messes up so bad you'll be totaly justified in locking him out. And that's my Dear Abby advice for the day.:laugh:
Good luck,
T.