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Should I Log In As Administrator?

Q: I'm logging on to my Windows 2000 PC at home as Administrator, but a PC guru told me that's a bad idea. Is he right?

A: Absolutely. Although logging on as Administrator gives you complete control over the computer, it presents a security problem. Any Trojan horses that manage to penetrate your PC will wreak much greater havoc if they sneak into your system while you're logged on as Administrator.

To be safe, assign yourself to the power users group and log on using that user name and password. (This group is also called standard users in the Users and Passwords applet in Control Panel.) Power users can install software, run pre-Windows 2000 programs, finesse hardware, and make substantial changes to the computer.

At times, though, you'll need to access the system as its Administrator. Fortunately, you don't have to waste time logging off, then logging back on as Administrator. Use Windows 2000's Run As command instead.

Using Windows Explorer, the Start menu, or even icons on the desktop, hold down the Shift key and right-click the application or file you want to access as Administrator, choose Run as, check the button beside "Run the program as X/Administrator" (where X is the name of the PC) and click OK.

Let's say you're logged on as Gregg, a power user, but you need to monkey with Add/Remove Programs from the Control Panel. You can pull up that applet, but you won't be able to make any changes like uninstalling an application. To get past that barrier, Shift-right-click the Add/Remove Programs icon, choose Run as, and log on as Administrator--you'll need to provide the Administrator password here.

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