Before You Begin in VB.NET

Maker PDF 417 in VB.NET Before You Begin

Before you begin this chapter, you should have a basic familiarity with working in a Windows-based operating system. To complete the practices in this chapter, you must have a computer running Microsoft Windows XP Professional.

A user account is a collection of settings that define the actions that a user can perform after the user has logged on to Windows XP. Windows controls access to system resources based on the permissions and user rights that are associated with each user account. User rights are very different from permissions. User rights pertain to a user s ability to perform specific functions on a computer. Permissions control a user s ability to access resources such as files, folders, and printers. Local user accounts control access to resources on the local computer, and domain user accounts control access to resources on a network running Microsoft Active Directory directory service. You can use security groups (both at the local and domain level) to organize users according to common access needs. As a DST, you are responsible for creating, configuring, and troubleshooting local user accounts and local security groups in a workgroup setting. In a domain setting, you are not responsible for creating and managing user accounts or groups, but you might be called on to help troubleshoot logon problems for domain users.

Explain the difference between local and domain accounts. Identify the built-in user accounts that are available in Windows XP Professional. Create and modify a user account in Windows XP Professional. Explain the use of groups. Create and add members to a group in Windows XP Professional. Explain the limitations of user accounts in Windows XP Home Edition. Configure Fast User Switching.

As you learned in 1, Introduction to Desktop Support, a computer running Windows XP Professional can be a member of either a workgroup or a domain. (Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition does not support domain membership.) Even if you have a single computer running in isolation, it is still a member of a workgroup. Computers in a workgroup rely on local security databases that are stored on each individual computer. Computers in a domain rely on a security database that is part of Active Directory.

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When you log on to a computer that is in a workgroup, you log on locally to that com puter. This means that the user name and password that you enter are checked against the local accounts database of the computer on which you are working. If you provide proper credentials, you gain access to the Windows desktop and any local resources that you have permission to use. When you log on to a computer that is a member of a domain, you have two choices presented to you at the logon screen. You can log on to the local computer, or you can log on to the domain. If you log on to the domain, your credentials are checked against a list of users that are defined in Active Directory. These credentials control your access to resources both on the local computer and on the network. Users in a domain envi ronment should almost always log on to the domain rather than to the local computer, making local user accounts less important in a domain than they are in a workgroup. However, the ability to log on locally is useful for troubleshooting logon problems because it bypasses Active Directory.

Note This lesson focuses on features that are provided by Windows XP Professional. Win dows XP Home Edition provides only a subset of these features. At the end of the lesson, you will find detailed information about the differences between Windows XP Professional and Windows XP Home Edition.

You will use local user accounts for the following purposes: