Administrator log on?

Though I have been building and playing with these sometimes aggravating boxes since 1972. I have never learned anything about doing stuff as an Administrator. I down loaded drivers for my old Kodak323 camera that instructs me to log on as Administrator to install. So here sits the dummy waiting for one of you smarter guys to lead me through it!

Phil

Hello OldPhil,

On a Windows XP system, there are 3 basic types of user accounts: Administrator, Limited User, and Guest.

Generally speaking, in order to install programs, you need to do this in the Administrator account. The reason is that a Limited user account blocks access to a number of areas of the computer. The Administrator can actually set things up to prevent a Limited user from installing anything at all.

So, for what you want to accomplish: 1st make sure that what you want to install is legitimate and is compatible with your system. The website for your camera that provides the downloads should tell you if they are compatible or not. Please note. If you saved the downloads to the desktop, you will need to save them to a different folder in order to get to the files when in the other account. The My Documents folder should work. The administrator can see the My Documents folders for all the accounts.

Once you have determined all that, then if you are in a Limited User account, log out of it then go into the Administrator account in order to install the drivers. Once they are installed, you can log back out of the Administrator account then log back into the Limited User account.

Note: While installing, if you get a question about whether you should make the program available for all users or just for me, choose "all users". If you don't, you won't have access to it from the limited user account.

Orange Blossom

If you built the box yourself, there is high probability that you have admin access.

To have a look at all the accounts open Control Panel > User Accounts You can see all accounts and below them the privileges allotted to them.

To have detailed view of all accounts, open Start Menu > Run and type control userpasswords2 and press Enter. In this dialog, you can see all accounts with which Group they belong to (like Administrators, Guests, Power Users etc)

If you are not admin, you may have to log off and log in again with admin credentials.

By default Windows XP does not set any password for default Administrator account for local access. So you can try logging in with username:Administrator and no password.

Thank you both Romeo you are right I build all my own stuff, I checked and yes it says I am the administrator. I have never pass worded anything since when years back I pass worded the BIOS, you guessed it months later I lost it and could not get in so that ended ever using passwords!

Orange Blossom the software is from the Kodak site so I am sure it is Ok, I was a little leary about the admin thing.


Phil