One Man, One Machine and 5 user accounts
My name is Dustin, I am running XP Pro. I use one computer to handle my personal and business life, and i am the only person using the machine. After I installed XP on my machine I soon relized the benifits of creating multiple user accounts so to have a desktop work envirment to handle multiple facites of my life.
I created a user account called PERSONAL, here my financial and personal documents are stored so not to get mixed up with my work stuff. My BUSINESS account is were, you guesed it, I have my biz applications and docs. My SYSTEM account were I install software and run computer maintnance and performance utilities, my ENTERTAINMENT account for my music and movies, and finally a DESIGN account for my web design and photography projects. With the benifits come downfalls!
The problem is every time I log into an account I have applications that automatically run. Applications load and run in my systray like McAfee Virus scan and Firewall, Printer and Graphics Card resourses along with others depending which account I log onto. I need for these applications to not bog down my system resourses. It would me nice if they only had to run once, instaed of multiple times im my PROCCESSES. When I have all my accounts open there are five of the same applications running. My Virus scan has to download updates to each account seperatly. My Firewall asks me to verify subscription all the time, I guess it thinks I have it installed on multiple computers illegally. Is there away to correct this whole big problem?
Another problem I am having is with having to configure windows settings and application settings independantly. I would like the same desktop, same power off options same sound scheme same pretty much everything. If I confure Photoshop to be the way I want, I only want to do it once! I dont want to have to log onto each account and open photoshop to configure all the settings manually, again. I want to be able to view, write and send email through MS Outlook no matter which account im logged into. I want to be able to sync my pocket pc in any account. When I change a programs settings I want the change to be system wide, and be able to make these changes anywhere. Anotherwords I dont whant to have to log onto a special account to make changes. I would like it if all my start menues, all my favorites and links menues were all the same. Whan I use WMPlayer i would like to share the same play lists and star ratings. WOW. Am I Crazy? Is all this to much to ask. I am going crazy trying to manage all these settinings.
Using the Windows Explorer I find Documents and Settings. I see all my accounts here plus administrator, All Users, Defualt User and User. Defualt user and user i dont understand. Ive read that you can save a profile to defualt user so that when you create a new account, it uses those predifined settings. What is User for? I think that Application Data Folder is where the each unique accounts, system and application settings are stored. Is there a way to create an account that uses all the same settings? Is that what User is for? Can I use folder sync software to sync all my settings? Can I use a group Policy? Is there a site to learn more about group policys in laymans terms. Does anybody know of any books or websites that I should look at? Is there any software that could patch this problem? Does anybody else have this problem? Can anyone help? e help?
