Removing user passwords

Some of you may have computer systems set up with multiple users. You might have a family computer for which each person has his or her own account for personal settings or for which you have separate accounts with different privilege levels. In some situations in which security is not a big concern, a requirement for each user to type in a password to access her account is not necessary. In those cases, instead of clicking the user name and then typing in the password, the user would find it much easier to just click the name. An additional advantage of this
simplification would be that, for those with a family computer, you would not have to worry about reminding everyone what their passwords were or needing to reset passwords when they were forgotten.

Before you begin removing the user passwords, a word of caution is in order about the possible dangers of removing user passwords. First, I strongly recommend that you leave a password on the Administrator account and any account that has administrative privileges. Additionally, before you start removing passwords, I recommend that you secure your system from external intruders on the Internet. If you do not have passwords on your user's accounts, it would be much easier to connect to your computer remotely. One simple solution is to turn on the built-in firewall and remove the Client for Microsoft Networks from your network adapter through which you get your Internet connection. Turning on the built-in firewall and removing the unneeded network protocol is really easy. If you need any help, refer to Chapter 12, which is all about protecting your computer from intruders.

Now that you know the consequences of removing the passwords and have secured your system, you are ready to get started. They can be removed in two ways. For those of you that are familiar with the Windows 2000 style computer management user snap-in control, I recommend you follow the second method. For everyone else, you will feel more comfortable using the first method.