XP Home, Security, and the likes

I was very frustrated at Windows not letting me have security permissions for my computer so I searched in earnest for a way to do it. I discovered a page on the Microsoft site (I think it was linked from somewhere on these forums - don't know for sure) that said that I could assign permissions to different users. I did the steps in it, which involved logging into 'Administrator' in Safe Mode, and gave ownership of everything to what I thought was myself. Turns out I somehow made a new profile or something.

Now there are 2 main folders in Documents and Settings:

C:\Documents and Settings\A.SEANSCOMPUTER

and

C:\Documents and Settings\A

The latter is the one that I guess had been using before I messed it up and the former is the one it defaults to when I log on. I hope that makes sense. Anyway to get it to default to the 2nd one, or am I simply out of luck?

Thanks for your help!

 

MS has a tool to copy a user profile - maybe copy one over the other.
Or logon as the old user profile, was it Admin?

 

When I go to the User Profiles thing in 'Normal Mode' it shows only the account I 'default' to and a 'Guest' Profile. When I boot in Safe Mode it shows those two plus 'Administrator.'

I've pressed Ctrl+Alt+Del at the login screen twice where it prompts to log into other accounts that it doesn't list on the login screen. I've tried logging into 'A,' which is the folder name of the non-messed up profile before the calamity, using the password I assigned in Safe Mode, but it says I cannot log in. I can't remember the exact error message and I can't look it up at the moment due to my being at work. I hope that describes the problem.

Is this tool built in to XP or would I have to download it? How exactly does it work? When I gave ownership to myself, or to what I thought was myself, it changed all the custom settings and everything so now I have a bunch of crap popping up that I had disabled before and I don't really want to have to go through every program and do it all again - mostly because I don't remember. Would this tool do a similar thing that giving ownership to files/folders would?

Thanks a lot for your reply!

 

The messed up profile is no longer useable and probably never will be. Best to pull data out of it and drop it into the new default profile it created. If XP can, it creates a default profile to replace the main one, in the event of corrption.

XP Home is not the OS you want if you are going to lock down with permissions.

Trying to will only end up in tears and gnashing of teeth.

 

So there is absolutely no way for the computer when booting up to automatically go to the Administrator Profile, or at least prompt for it like it does in Safe Mode? Why would it be available in Safe Mode but not 'normal' mode?

 

So if I delete the one that I'm currently using, which is the one I don't want to be using, does that mean that I won't be able to log in at all? Will it allow me to log in to the Administrator one that it prompts for when I boot in Safe Mode?

Sorry if I seem very n00bish, or whatever the term would be for this sort of thing, but I'm at work and want to make sure that I get everything exactly right before I screw up my computer any more than I already have.

Thank you again!!

 

Xp Home allows Admininstrator account logins only from Safe Mode. No way to change that.

 

Ok thank you for your help.

If I were to simply copy and paste all the folders to my new profile would it also have the settings that I had made? For instance, would it still have AIM not pop up with its AIM today, and would Firefox have its default home page changed to the one I had made in the other profile? Or would I have to go through and customize every program again?

Thanks a lot!

 

Again I apologize for asking so many questions but as you can tell I'm not very XP saavy when it comes to this stuff. Thank you for your patience.

Would I copy and paste the 'Documents and Settings' Folder? What exactly would I copy and paste? Obviously the program settings would change for each user, but I do not know where it would store that kind of information. Is there some sort of config file the program uses to find its settings? I'm assuming it would be in the Folder of the program in "Program Files." Is my assumption correct?

Thank you guys again so much for your help!