XP makes it easier for families to share a computer

BY LARRY MAGID
Special to the Mercury News

With Windows XP, Microsoft is finally offering an operating system that makes it relatively easy for families to share a computer or, if you have more than one PC, to set up a home network.

Unless your family budget allows for each person to have his or her own PC, chances are that two or more people in your household share a machine. If so, issues could arise. Some are relatively minor personal preference issues such as customization of the PC's desktop, audio preferences and other options.

In addition to cosmetics like screen savers, there are other customization options that can make the machine easier to use and more secure for each member of the family.

Windows XP lets you set up and manage multiple accounts. Each account (the term is a holdover from the old mainframe days when many people shared a single large machine) is basically a user.

Mom, Dad, Brother and Sis could each have their own account and be required to ``log in'' before they can use the computer to access their software or files. You can optionally assign a password to any account as a way to keep family members from messing around with each other's stuff.

Each account has its own unique view of the PC. When you set up a new account, Windows and most of the programs take on their default personalities. You can then start to customize each account.

When you start the machine, you pass through a Welcome screen with a menu listing each user. Each account has a picture associated with it that can make it easy for little kids to log on to their own account, even if they can't read. XP comes with 20 optional pictures but you can also use a digital photograph or other graphic file on your disk.

 Family members can have their own Internet start page and their own set of favorites.

 

 Even if you all use the same e-mail program, each person can have a unique address book and access only to his or her own mail
 

 You can even customize the way individual programs -- like Microsoft Word -- operate so Dad can have one set of menu items and icons while Sis has Word configured to her own liking.
 

 Each user has a different desktop and a different Start menu. In some cases, programs installed by one user might not even appear to be available to others. But with other programs, Quicken 2002 for example, shortcut icons might show up in each person's account. You can easily delete a shortcut in one account without affecting the others.

Finally, with XP you don't have to worry about accidentally accessing, writing over or erasing each other's files. That's because each person has their own ``My Documents'' folder along with their own folders for digital photographs and music files. There is also a shared folder that you can use to store files that are accessible to the entire family.

That doesn't mean that you can't get to other people's folders. If you click on the My Computer in the Start menu you can browse through the entire disk and, by default, be able open any folder on the machine.

It is possible, however, for a user to restrict access to a sub-folder inside their ``My Documents'' folder by right clicking on the sub-folder, selecting ``Sharing and Security'' and clicking ``Make this folder private.''

There are two types of accounts you can set up. An ``Administrator'' account can do anything including install programs and hardware, set up and delete other accounts and delete files which a ``limited'' user can only change their own picture and create, delete or change their password.

Another interesting issue with accounts is that they sometimes take on quirks of their own. It's possible for one account to have a problem -- like not shutting down properly or programs not working just right -- while the other accounts work just fine. Keep this in mind as a solution to Windows troubleshooting. If you can't fix a problem, try setting up a new account to see if it will go away.

There are some issues when two or more people share a PC. For one thing, XP allows you to switch users without having to ``log off,'' close your programs or save your files. This makes it fast and easy to share a machine but also makes it possible for another person to start using the machine while your files are open. If you're logged on and have unsaved files, they could be lost if someone else shuts down or crashes the machine. Windows will automatically take you to the switch user log on screen if the machine goes into suspend mode after a period of non-use enabling others to sign on oblivious to whether another person's programs are in use. These defaults, however, can be changed in the User Accounts section of the Control Panel.

If you install a program for one user and don't want others to access it, be sure to log onto their accounts to see if the program is available. Some programs install themselves in all configurations while others are only available on the account that installed them.

Windows has long come with the necessary software to create a simple local area network but networking has always been a daunting task. XP makes the process a lot easier with a networking ``wizard'' that pretty much automates the process of sharing a cable modem, printers or other devices among several connected PCs. It also provides for simple file sharing by giving everyone access to the Shared Documents folder on each machine. You can, of course, customize networking to provide access to additional folders or to a machine's entire hard drive. Unlike WindowsXP Professional Edition, you can't assign passwords to individual drives or folders. Either they're public (accessible to anyone on your network) or they're not.