Users, Accounts, and UAC

By now most Windows users are probably familiar with the notion of user accounts and how all users on a PC can have their own individual settings, documents, and other features. In Windows Vista, Microsoft simplified the user account types down to just two, and locked them down to make the system more secure. Windows 7 takes this approach a step further and makes it easier to configure how user accounts behave and are protected. And thanks to features such as User Account Control, Parental Controls, and Windows Live Family Safety, Windows 7 is not only more secure than previous Windows versions, but also easier to configure from a user account perspective. This tutorial describes these features and explains how they can be put to the best possible use.

Note Windows 7 user accounts include a variety of obvious functionality that is not covered here explicitly, those features that are brand-new to Windows 7 and/or are so well hidden you'd never normally know about them. So, yes, you can add cute pictures to your user account; add, change, and remove passwords; and even change your account type, but you can do much more than that. This tutorial looks at the new and improved functionality that makes user accounts so much better in Windows 7 than they were in Windows XP and Vista.