Less Privileges is a good thing when it comes to computer security.
To take advantage of the least privilege principle I would recommend that you create at least one more additional account.
This account should be used for:
- Running and preferably installing any type of software that you do not absolutely trust.
- Your kids, your spouse or any other person whom you don’t absolutely trust with your pc.
Preferably you should create a separate user account for each member of your family or each person who is using your pc. Not only because of security issues but also because Windows saves each user’s documents and preferences separately. This gives more privacy and protection against accidental changes.
So how do we create a new user?
Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click “User Accounts”.
You will now see the following.
Next click the “Create New Account” link.
Type the name that you want to use for the account, and then click “Next”.
Note if you are creating this account for one of your pc users then you should use a descriptive name for that person, like “He who doesn’t wash the dishes” or “my least favorite aunt” or you could go the conservative way and just put the person’s name in there. But if you are creating this account for limiting software usage, as I did in the example below, then the name “MyLimitedUserAccount” might be appropriate.
In the next part we can choose what type of user we want to create, an omnipotent one (computer administrator) or limited privileges one (limited).
In the pick account box choose the limited account type (circled in red in the picture below).
By default the computer administrator type would be selected.
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