Windows Vista™ Inside Out

Setting a Logon Password

Associating a password with your user account is your first line of defense against those who would like to snoop around in your files. Because the Welcome screen shows every user account, if you don’t set passwords, anyone who has physical access to your computer can log on by simply clicking a name on the Welcome screen. If the chosen name belongs to an administrator account, the person who clicks it has full, unfettered access to every file and setting on the computer. Requiring a password for each account (particularly administrator accounts) goes a long way toward securing your computer.

Note

You needn’t worry about someone logging on to your computer remotely (over the network, the internet, or with Remote Desktop ...