Create your first user profile using the Passwords Properties dialog box.

Your First User Profile

Your first step in setting up multiple user profiles is to set up one for yourself. Click the Start button and choose Settings, Control Panel; double-click the Passwords icon. In the Passwords Properties dialog box, click the User Profiles tab. Select the second option, Users Can Customize Their Preferences And Desktop Settings. Windows Switches To Your Personal Settings When You Log On. Then, under User Profile Settings, select the custom settings (as opposed to universal settings) you want each user to have; for example, if you want each user to maintain his own Desktop, My Network Places, Start menu and Programs groups, check both boxes. (We recommend checking both.)

Click OK and Yes to restart your computer. When prompted, type a username and, if you like, a password for your new profile, and click OK; if you entered a password, confirm it and click OK. When asked if you want the computer to retain individual settings, click Yes. Windows Me will create your profile, which might take a few minutes; it creates a place for maintaining your personal Desktop, My Documents folder, recent documents menu, Start menu, favorites, Web cache and history, cookies, and more.

The next time you start your computer, the Enter Network Password dialog box will appear. Enter your username and password and click OK.

Set up multiple users at once using the Add User Wizard.

Add Other Profiles

Once you've added your own profile, there are two ways you can set up others. You can set them up at startup, as you did your own; when the Enter Password dialog box appears, just enter a new username and password and repeat the procedure described above. Or you can set up several user profiles at once through the Control Panel. Click Start, choose Settings and then Control Panel, and double-click the Users icon. Select your profile and then click New User. (You could also click Make A Copy to create a new user profile using yours as a starting point.)

The Add User Wizard appears. Enter the username for your new user and click Next; enter and confirm a password and click Next. Of course, you may want the user to do this. Select the items to personalize for this user and whether to copy existing content in these areas (from your profile) or create new items to save hard drive space. Click Next to finish.

You can also use the wizard to customize your profile settings (or any others). For example, if you want your profile to maintain a customized My Documents folder and Start menu but not a custom Desktop, double-click the Users icon in the Control Panel, select your profile, click Change Settings, make your changes, and click OK.

Microsoft Family Logon presents a menu of users every time you start the computer and every time a user logs off.

Simplify With The Family Logon

Once you've set up your multiple users, any user can simply enter her username and password to enter her customized WinMe world. But you can make it even easier than that (and keep an eye on the number of profiles people are setting up) by displaying a family logon screen whenever the computer starts. From here, a user can select his username, enter his password, and get to work.

On the Desktop, right-click My Network Places and choose Properties from the shortcut menu. Click Add. In the dialog box that appears, select Client and click Add. In the left pane of the Select Network Client dialog box, click Microsoft; in the right pane, click Microsoft Family Logon. Then click OK. When you return to the Network dialog box, select Microsoft Family Logon from the Primary Network Logon drop-down menu. Click OK and then Yes to restart the computer. When Windows restarts, the family logon screen will appear; select the appropriate username, type the corresponding password, and click OK.

To switch from one user to another, choose Log Off instead of Shut Down from the Start menu.

Onward & Upward

Now that you've set up all of these user accounts, it's worth your while to become acquainted with your modified work environment so you can deal with the quirks you'll encounter.

Simple user switching. Windows lets you switch among multiple accounts without restarting the computer. Click Start and choose Log Off Name, where Name is the username of the last person to log on. Windows closes all of the personalized windows, applications, and settings for the last user and presents either the Logon dialog box (where the next user can enter his name and password) or the Family Logon dialog box.

Password problems. Forget a password? Fortunately, it doesn't mean you can't use the computer. Just click Cancel at the Logon or Family Logon dialog box, and Windows takes you to the default profile, which won't include your personal preferences but will give you access to all of the applications on the computer.

If you forget your password, it's fairly easy to create a new profile for yourself with a new password and delete your old profile. In the Control Panel, click Users. In the User Settings dialog box, select your current username, click Make A Copy, and let the wizard guide you. When you finish, return to the User Settings dialog box, select your old profile, and click Delete. Of course, all of this takes time. The best course of action is to not to forget your password in the first place.

Application issues. One thing you notice once you start using profiles is that any new applications and their corresponding Start menu or Desktop icons appear only in the user profile in which you install them. If you want an application in every user profile, you need to install it in every profile. If it's installed in the same folders (the default folders) each time, Windows will actually maintain just one copy of the program files but will copy user-specific settings to the appropriate user profile folders, thereby conserving hard drive space.

Email. It's only natural for everyone who has his own user profile to want his own email and to make sure no one else can read it. If you use Outlook Express for email, this is exactly what you get. Microsoft Outlook Express creates separate accounts for each user profile, and when you log in, you get your email and no one else's. However, if you use another email program, such as Microsoft Outlook (the Outlook that comes with Microsoft Office), you'll need to uninstall that program and reinstall it in each user profile. Otherwise everyone's email will appear in the same mailbox, no matter how many different email accounts you set up.


Secure & Slick It Isn't

Don't let the passwords fool you: In WinMe (and Windows 98, for that matter), multiple user profiles are designed to make sharing the computer more convenient but not more secure. Once a user gains access to the computer via a user profile or the default user profile, he can navigate folders through the Windows Explorer window to access files and even settings information from any other folder.

Another drawback of multiple users is performance. Switching from one user to another can take time, and after a few switches, the system seems to slow down in a noticeable way. This is especially true when switching among multiple profiles, each of which may have multiple applications running; when you switch profiles, these applications remain active in the background, eating up system resources. Having lots of memory can help, but only so much.

If you want data privacy and performance for multiple users, consider an upgrade to Windows XP, which was built for multiple users from the ground up. WinXP gives you the option to deny access to a user if she doesn't enter the correct password and lets you switch users a lot more smoothly and quickly.

by Mark Scapicchio