Remote logins using 2x XP Pro, 1x XP home, 1x Vista home premium

[Guest jodleren]

Hello

 

The situation: I maintain an office, where they now got a computer

with Vista. There are 4 computers, all connected via lan and the idea

is that all documents are shared to everyone.

There are 2 computers with XP Professional, one with XP Home and now

one with Vista Home Premium.

 

Sharing works in all cases, all computers can access "my documents" on

all other computer (though on Vista I renamed the Documents folder for

the sake of the standard.

 

There are 3 minor issues with the system. The XP Pro are the best

working computers.

 

1) XP Home cannot remember passwords for logging in to other

computers. Is this specific for "home"? Professional has it. Is there

a fix?

 

2) The same goes for Vista Home Premium. When logging in to another

computer, it prompts for user/passw, and with an option "Remember by

password" just as XP Pro has it. The only difference is that it does

not work after rebooting/starting, while in XP Pro it works next time.

Is this a bug?

 

I also found this:

"You need to utillize Vista's UAC (user account control) tool.

Click on the start butto, type "User Accounts", and press Enter.

Click Manage network passwords on the side menu.

Select 'Add' for this problem

Fill out the 'Stored Credential Properties' screen and click OK."

 

Well I found it myself also, and figured it out. But, I can fill it

out, but I dont know how it relates... should it be "\\other_computer"

or just "other_computer". USername "other_computer\someone" or just

"someone". All were tried, but none worked. When entering another

computer, it still prompts for user/passw, though I can pick the

username here, the password is not working at all.

Finally, it seems to forget this list anyway when rebooting :-) Yet

another bug?

 

3) When logging in to Vista Home Premium from another computer, I need

to create a dummy account. There is only one administrator on the

computer, and basically that should be it (no password during startup,

just working... this is needed for those .... working there).

Well, I cannot login using the admin accoung with or without password.

In stead, there is a dummy account (with password, forgot to try

without) and that one can log in. Now they are confused that there are

2 users on one computer.

Can I in anyway login using the admin account? Or make the dummy

account hidden, so it is only there for remote login?

 

WBR

sonnich

[Guest Malke]

Re: Remote logins using 2x XP Pro, 1x XP home, 1x Vista home premium

 

jodleren wrote:

 

Comments inline:

> The situation: I maintain an office, where they now got a computer

> with Vista. There are 4 computers, all connected via lan and the idea

> is that all documents are shared to everyone.

> There are 2 computers with XP Professional, one with XP Home and now

> one with Vista Home Premium.

>

> Sharing works in all cases, all computers can access "my documents" on

> all other computer (though on Vista I renamed the Documents folder for

> the sake of the standard.

 

Although this doesn't address your questions below, you really should

consider having one computer or Network Appliance Storage (NAS) that hosts

all the shared files and nothing else. The way you have it, unless you have

a backup system you haven't mentioned, you need to back up all 4 computers

separately. This almost guarantees that it won't get done.

> There are 3 minor issues with the system. The XP Pro are the best

> working computers.

>

> 1) XP Home cannot remember passwords for logging in to other

> computers. Is this specific for "home"? Professional has it. Is there

> a fix?

>

> 2) The same goes for Vista Home Premium. When logging in to another

> computer, it prompts for user/passw, and with an option "Remember by

> password" just as XP Pro has it. The only difference is that it does

> not work after rebooting/starting, while in XP Pro it works next time.

> Is this a bug?

 

Home versions of XP and Vista do not cache passwords. This is by design. If

it is important to you, upgrade to XP Pro/Vista Business.

> I also found this:

> "You need to utillize Vista's UAC (user account control) tool.

> Click on the start butto, type "User Accounts", and press Enter.

> Click Manage network passwords on the side menu.

> Select 'Add' for this problem

> Fill out the 'Stored Credential Properties' screen and click OK."

 

I'm really not sure where you're seeing this. You can read about Vista's UAC

in the Vista Help & Support or check out this link:

 

User Account Control Step-by-Step Guide

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc709691.aspx?ppud=4

 

It is important for security to have UAC enabled, but it won't make your

Home versions of Windows act like Pro/Business versions regarding caching

passwords.

> 3) When logging in to Vista Home Premium from another computer, I need

> to create a dummy account. There is only one administrator on the

> computer, and basically that should be it (no password during startup,

> just working... this is needed for those .... working there).

> Well, I cannot login using the admin accoung with or without password.

> In stead, there is a dummy account (with password, forgot to try

> without) and that one can log in. Now they are confused that there are

> 2 users on one computer.

> Can I in anyway login using the admin account? Or make the dummy

> account hidden, so it is only there for remote login?

 

You actually have not got your computers set up well in regards to user

accounts. You're apparently using the built-in Administrator account in XP,

some other administrative user account in XP Home (since the built-in

Administrator account is only available in Safe Mode in Home), and some

other administrative user account in Vista (since the built-in

Administrator account is disabled by default in Vista). This gives you zero

protection in an emergency if those accounts become corrupted (not an

uncommon occurrence).

 

You absolutely do not want to have only one user account in Vista or XP.

 

You particularly don't want only one user account with administrative

privileges on Vista because the built-in Administrator account (normally

only used in emergencies) is disabled by default. In Vista, you should

create at least three user accounts: one standard user account that you

will use for your daily work and two administrative accounts for

permissions and emergencies. In XP, while it is more secure to run as a

Standard (Limited in Home) user, in Real Life it is often difficult

because of older software expecting to run with administrative rights. You

should create at least one extra user account in XP. Call it Tech or

whatever. You may never need to log into it or the extra Vista user

accounts, but if the day comes when you can't get into your regular

accounts you'll be very glad you had the foresight to create the extra

ones.

 

If you want to go directly to the Desktop and skip the Welcome Screen with

the icons of user accounts, this works for both XP and Vista:

 

Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm

 

Malke

--

MS-MVP

Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!

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