{"id":101560,"date":"2016-09-23T15:14:12","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T19:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/?page_id=101560"},"modified":"2017-07-13T16:31:36","modified_gmt":"2017-07-13T20:31:36","slug":"how-to-create-an-administrator-account","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/support\/information-security\/security-for-everyone\/how-to-create-an-administrator-account\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Create An Administrator Account"},"content":{"rendered":"

New computers often come with only one active account on them, the administrative account.\u00a0 Most people just buy a computer and start to use it setting up the administrator account as the one they will use for their day-to-day activities.<\/p>\n

This is not a good idea.\u00a0 The account you use on a day-to-day basis should not be an \u201cadministrative\u201d account, but rather a \u201cstandard\u201d account.\u00a0 You rarely actually need administrative privileges, typically only when you are installing new software.\u00a0 The danger of normally running as administrator is that, if you accidentally come across a malicious web site or malicious software, it will be running with the privileges of the current account, and, if the current account is administrative, malware can do a lot more damage.<\/p>\n

It is far better to set up a separate account to have administrative privileges and downgrade your normal account to standard privileges.\u00a0 If you ever need those administrative privileges, log out of your normal account and log in to your administrative account.<\/p>\n

It is not too difficult to set up the alternate account; here\u2019s links to a step by step guide how:<\/p>\n