What Are Your Rights?

What Are Your Rights?

When logging onto your computer, you are logging on with an account that is in one of three primary groups. These groups have varied levels of user rights. These user groups are assigned rights at the Users group level, Power Users group level and Administrators group level. I am presenting these levels in a chart format. The higher you go on this chart, the more authority you have to make system changes. On the flip side, the more authority you have, the more likely you are to intentionally or unintentionally make system changes that can wreak havoc on your system. Those changes include accidentally installing spyware, viruses, trojans or keyloggers from a web site, e-mail attachment or document link.

I am creating this chart to show these levels.

Group Level	Rights (Authority) on the Computer	Ramification	To Do What	Who Should Have This, and When?
Administrators	Highest Possible	Least Secure	Install/reinstall/uninstall software, repair the operating system, make system changes, run any Windows program. Anything and everything to the computer.	Only those responsible for keeping the computer alive. Use an account from this group only to perform items in the "To Do What" column. Use a "Power User" or "User" account at all other times. They are more secure.
Power Users	Middle	Middle	More permissions than members of the Users group and fewer than members of the Administrators group. Power Users can run non Windows-certified programs and perform any operating system task except tasks reserved for the Administrators group	Those who need to run programs that have not achieved Microsoft's Windows-certified designation.Use whenever creating work product, web surfing or managing e-mail.
Users	Lowest Possible While Also Providing Acceptable Functionality	Most Secure (of these three)	Run Windows-certified programs. This permission set is designed to prevent members of this group from compromising the integrity of the operating system and installed programs. Users cannot modify systemwide registry settings, operating system files, or program files.	Everyone. Use whenever creating work product, web surfing or managing e-mail. This is the most secure. It provides the lowest chance of virus, spyware or malware infection. It provides the least ability to unintentionally damage Windows.

Complied from several sources, most authoritatively, The Microsoft Corporation. For a list of Microsoft-certified programs, see https://winqual.microsoft.com/member/softwarelogo/certifiedlist.aspx.

In practice, use two separate accounts. For everyday use, login with an account in the Users group (e.g. Joe). When installing programs or performing system changes, login as Administrator or Joe-Admin.Keep these usernames and passwords somewhere safe.