Creating the Initial User Account

When you install Windows 7 for the first time or turn on a new computer that has Windows 7 preinstalled from a PC maker, you will eventually run into the so-called out-of-box experience (OOBE), sometimes called the Day One Experience, whereby Windows 7 prompts you for a few pertinent bits of information before presenting you with the Windows desktop for the first time-information used to create your initial administrative account. While this account is technically granted administrative privileges, remember that this privilege isn't as all-powerful as it was in XP. You'll see why in just a moment.

Tip Are you wondering why Microsoft doesn't give you the chance to make your initial user account a non-administrator account? The reason is simple: you still need at least one account on each PC that has administrative privileges. If you didn't have such an account, there would be no way for you to access those features and services that do require administrative privileges.

Tip One feature that's missing from Windows 7, incidentally, is that it's no longer possible to create up to five user accounts during setup, as it was in XP setup. (In this case, Windows 7 behaves as Vista did.) You can create only a single user account while configuring Windows 7 for the first time, so if you want to create more accounts, you have to do that after you log on. Those accounts, by default, are not created with administrative privileges unless you change the settings (a process described fully in just a moment).