Page 921 - Windows 10 May 2019 Update The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box

The Guest Account

Believe it or not, administrator and standard aren’t the only kinds of

accounts you can set up on your PC.

A third kind, called the guest account, is ideal for situations when
somebody is just visiting you for the week. Rather than create an entire

account for this person, complete with password, hint, little picture, and so
on, you can just switch on the guest account.

Guest accounts are pretty standard in computers these days, but you
wouldn’t think so if you just poked around Windows 10; Microsoft has

buried the feature under mounds of dust and rubble, and you can get to it
only if you have Windows 10 Pro.

To turn on the guest account, in the search box, type lusrmgr.msc. In the

results, choose “lusrmgr.msc.”

The crazy window shown in Figure 18-10 appears; proceed as shown in the
figure. (You can read more about this window in a free PDF appendix to

this book. See “Local Users Console” on the “Missing CD” at
missingmanuals.com.)

Now, when the visitor tries to sign in, she can choose Guest as the account.

She can use the computer but can’t see anyone else’s files or make any
changes to your settings.

When the visitor is finally out of your hair, healthy paranoia suggests that

you turn off the guest account once again. (To do so, follow precisely the
same steps, except turn “Account is disabled” on again.)