To allow only certain users to access your shared files or printer, you need to create accounts for them. Let's see how!
Why create user accounts?
Security doesn't mean that once you got a firewall and a good antivirus , everything's fine. When more people use the same computer, restrictions must be used to ensure that personal data remains confidential. This is exactly the main purpose of creating user accounts in Windows Vista, so that each user is able to have its own files, its own settings, and be the only one able to change them (apart from the system administrator, of course).
Creating user accounts for password-protected sharing
- Click Start, enter the Control Panel and choose User Accounts and Family Safety.
- Choose the first selection in the screen that appears Add or Remove User Accounts.
- Inside the accounts management screen that appears, choose Create New Account.
- Create a Standard User or an Administrator, depending on your needs. While the first one can use most software and change settings that don't have anything to do with other users or the security of your computer, the Administrator-class users have complete access, being able to make any changes.
- After creating the accounts, return to the User Accounts area from the Control Panel.
- Choose Manage Another Account and click the user names you have created.
- For each of them, choose Create Password and assign a password.
- Select Accept Changes when you are happy with the password you have entered. The user names and passwords have to be created on any PC that you are going to share files on to for access from other computers on your network.
At last, if you have Public folder sharing turned on, you can simply copy or move files and folders to that location, and anyone with a user account and password on your computer, as well as all network users are going to gain access to your Public folder and subfolders.
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