Why are there SO MANY (9!) user accounts on my PC? Iâm the only one who uses
it or has access to it. I recently did a re-install of Windows XP and SP2 & SP3
(because of a virus). Many of these user accounts have duplicate folders, all
full of files. Is this using disk space? How do I delete unnecessary, redundant
user accounts without adversely affecting the PC? I have Googled both your website, your partnersâ websites, and the web in general and have not found the
answer. What are the minimum number of user accounts?
As with so many things, the answer is: it depends.
To begin with, Windows has a slightly different idea of what it means to be
a âuserâ than you and I do.
Add to that the various and sundry software packages that you might have
installed and the number of user accounts can get ⊠interesting.
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A user is a user is a âŠ
You and I naturally think of a user as a person who uses the computer. In
most cases, thereâs only one user and itâs you ⊠or me.
The separate âAdministratorâ user account is something that I think most
people at least somewhat understand as simply a different login that might have
more privileges associated with it than our normal account.
Typically, itâs the same real-life user; we might choose to login to our
machines as the Administrator or with an account that has administrator rights,
but to Windows, itâs actually a different âuserâ.
So, Administrator (which is often hidden) and our own login account â we
probably understand why theyâre there.
Then it gets ⊠interesting.
Additional Windows accounts
One account that you may see from time to time is called the âGuestâ account.
Ultimately, itâs an account created to allow individuals or other computers
who donât have accounts on your machine to do things with your machine
anyway.
For example, you might make your printer or a network share available on your
local network and allow anyone who can connect to it to access it. The
Guest account is one way to do that.
More often than not, the Guest account is disabled. Even with restrictive
security settings in place, it can be more of a security hassle than itâs
worth.
Additional software accounts
Occasionally, software thatâs installed on your machine needs to âlook likeâ
a computer user. Itâs one way that software can sometimes be granted privileges
greater than what your login account might have without granting the software
full, no-holds-barred administrative access.
The .NET framework seemed to be particularly prone to adding user accounts
for various reasons, although in later versions, less so (or perhaps Windows 7 has
done a better job of isolating them in a not-as-visible way).
Another somewhat common scenario is backup software. Backup software often
needs lower level access than your typical login account. As a result, when
setup is run, it creates an additional user account for the backup software.
The setup, typically run with full administrative access, creates a new user
account that (as I said before) has fewer privileges than Administrator, but
perhaps a couple of additional privileges than a limited user account might
have.
The backup software then logs in using its own account when it performs
its actions.
Itâs all about security
Itâs really all about security and making sure that the various software
packages have the appropriate level of access; they can do the things that they need to in order to do their job without being granted access to things that they donât.
The concept of âuserâ is really a concept of âaccount,â and thus, accounts
are generated automatically that may never ever be used by a real human user
directly.
Booting users
You asked how to delete unnecessary user accounts and for that, I have a
simple answer:
Donât.
The key is really understanding which ones are truly unnecessary and for
that thereâs no simple answer. Sure, if thereâs an XYZ User that appeared
after installing XYZ Backup, then itâs probably safe to delete that user after
uninstalling the backup program. But thatâs about as good as it gets.
In most cases, itâs not at all clear which are unnecessary, mostly because in
most cases, none of them are. Yes, each might take up a little disk space (often
not as much as you might think), but even if they do, that account and that
disk space is very likely part of whatâs required and used to provide a service
on your machine.
Deleting that user could easily cause something that you care about to fail.
Thus, I recommend not deleting them at all; the only caveat being to make
sure that you are keeping your computer properly secure and malware free.
Malware could, of course, create user accounts to hide or otherwise obscure
what itâs up to.
The obvious-to-me question, Leo, is âDid the virus create a user account which is now a gateway for malware or worse?â Is there any way to determine that?
07-May-2012
Regarding the enquirerâs comment about âduplicate folders, all full of filesâ is this, in fact, so? I have, always, assumed that there is one or, possibly, two copies of a file and that there are umpteen âindexesâ, each one associated with a User, which point to the whereabouts of the relevant files on the HD. And the same applies to the apparent multiplicity of files in various parts of a computer such as in Documents and Settings and similar collections of folders and files.
If I am correct, the only increase in disk space associated with many User Accounts is from the various âindexesâ or âcontents listâ which, I presume, are part of the Registry.
Would it be worth your elaborating on this matter sometime, Leo, so those of us who like to know how a computer works can have a clearer understanding of what goes on under the bonnet? As I am sure you realise, things were a lot simpler in Win9x and earlier!
Iâve come across instances where user profiles have not been able to load for whatever reason so Windows creates a temporary profile. So you could end up with many âuser profileâ folders named with variations of your username e.g.
youusername
yourusername.000
yourusername.001
yourusername.computername
One thing I learned long ago with Windows. If it works, donât mess with it. I used to go through the files in every nook & cranny to see what was there, if it was needed, and if I could delete it. Big mistake. The more I learned, the more confused I got. Itâs amazing that it works at all [most times].
Also, I learned to resist the urge to peek into the event viewer. Just looking at it I would swear my PC was on the verge of imploding.
One could backup then delete a user account. If nothing get broken, youâre good to go. If itâs broke, backup.