How to make drive not accessible to guest account?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike McCollister
  • Start date Start date
M

Mike McCollister

I have an external drive on my vista machine that has gives "Users" full
control. I just found out that the guest account is part of the "Users"
group. Is there a group that does not include the guest account? Basically I
don't want to have my backup drive accessible to the guest account. Is that
possible without replacing "Users" with each individual account?

Thanks,

Mike
 
I forgot to mention that I am running Windows Home Premium.

Thanks,

Mike

"Mike McCollister" <MikeMcCollister_DELETEME_@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2396F05A-7904-4479-8E15-F85B6890ECA9@microsoft.com...
>I have an external drive on my vista machine that has gives "Users" full
>control. I just found out that the guest account is part of the "Users"
>group. Is there a group that does not include the guest account? Basically
>I don't want to have my backup drive accessible to the guest account. Is
>that possible without replacing "Users" with each individual account?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mike
 
Mike McCollister wrote:

> I forgot to mention that I am running Windows Home Premium.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mike
>
> "Mike McCollister" <MikeMcCollister_DELETEME_@hotmail.com> wrote in
> message news:2396F05A-7904-4479-8E15-F85B6890ECA9@microsoft.com...
>>I have an external drive on my vista machine that has gives "Users" full
>>control. I just found out that the guest account is part of the "Users"
>>group. Is there a group that does not include the guest account? Basically
>>I don't want to have my backup drive accessible to the guest account. Is
>>that possible without replacing "Users" with each individual account?

The Guest account is normally disabled. Apparently for some unknown reason
you've enabled yours. Disable it and the problem goes away. If you want to
have an individual account for visitors, make one (Standard user account)
and called it something clever like "Visitors". To protect yourself in case
of account corruption, you should be working from a Standard user account
for your daily stuff anyway with at least one extra Administrative user
account set up for emergencies. Then if you want to log in and go directly
to the Desktop (into one particular user's account) for convenience, you
can do this. The instructions at this link work for both XP and Vista:

Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm

All that aside, if you want to keep the contents on your external hard drive
private, consider encrypting it with something like TrueCrypt (free).

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!
 
What is wrong with using the Guest account?

Mike

"Malke" <malke@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:OEojihWyIHA.1436@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Mike McCollister wrote:
>
>> I forgot to mention that I am running Windows Home Premium.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Mike
>>
>> "Mike McCollister" <MikeMcCollister_DELETEME_@hotmail.com> wrote in
>> message news:2396F05A-7904-4479-8E15-F85B6890ECA9@microsoft.com...
>>>I have an external drive on my vista machine that has gives "Users" full
>>>control. I just found out that the guest account is part of the "Users"
>>>group. Is there a group that does not include the guest account?
>>>Basically
>>>I don't want to have my backup drive accessible to the guest account. Is
>>>that possible without replacing "Users" with each individual account?
>
> The Guest account is normally disabled. Apparently for some unknown reason
> you've enabled yours. Disable it and the problem goes away. If you want to
> have an individual account for visitors, make one (Standard user account)
> and called it something clever like "Visitors". To protect yourself in
> case
> of account corruption, you should be working from a Standard user account
> for your daily stuff anyway with at least one extra Administrative user
> account set up for emergencies. Then if you want to log in and go directly
> to the Desktop (into one particular user's account) for convenience, you
> can do this. The instructions at this link work for both XP and Vista:
>
> Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
> http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm
>
> All that aside, if you want to keep the contents on your external hard
> drive
> private, consider encrypting it with something like TrueCrypt (free).
>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> Don't Panic!
 
Mike McCollister wrote:

> What is wrong with using the Guest account?

The Guest account is not for when you are feeling hospitable. It is a system
account used only to temporarily allow someone without an account on the
system to log on and do some work.

From TechNet
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb418978(TechNet.10).aspx

"The Guest account is intended for users who require temporary access to the
system. However, if this account is enabled, a security risk may exist
because an unauthorized user could gain anonymous access to the system
through this account."

That's why it is normally disabled in Windows, Unix, OS X, and Linux.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!
 
Malke,

How is this less secure than just creating a standard user account?

Mike

"Malke" <malke@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:eLFAuIayIHA.4376@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Mike McCollister wrote:
>
>> What is wrong with using the Guest account?
>
> The Guest account is not for when you are feeling hospitable. It is a
> system
> account used only to temporarily allow someone without an account on the
> system to log on and do some work.
>
> From TechNet
> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb418978(TechNet.10).aspx
>
> "The Guest account is intended for users who require temporary access to
> the
> system. However, if this account is enabled, a security risk may exist
> because an unauthorized user could gain anonymous access to the system
> through this account."
>
> That's why it is normally disabled in Windows, Unix, OS X, and Linux.
>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> Don't Panic!
 
Thanks for the info.

Mike

"Malke" <malke@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:uCjPlpOzIHA.4772@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Mike McCollister wrote:
>
>> Malke,
>>
>> How is this less secure than just creating a standard user account?
>
> Guest has different permissions. Read the TechNet article and other
> security
> articles about Guest.
>
> http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=why+is+guest+account+security+risk&btnG=Google+Search
>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> Don't Panic!
 
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