Should I use a standard account for every day and have a separate Admin account?

kelper · Apr 4, 2025

AndreyT said:
It is not clear, whether this was intended to be a question or a poll...

The question part is slam-dunk: yes, you should user (sic!) a regular user account for normal everyday use of the computer and have a separate admin account dedicated to admin tasks. Having separate accounts is just baseline, of course. On top of that baseline, one would normally use `runas` to gain temporary admin access from under regular user account - to perform "quick touch-up" kind of administrative tasks without having to switch accounts.

As for the poll... not sure of its purpose, considering how old and beaten-to-death the topic is.

I wish you critics would try creating a poll when you are interested in the current opinion of the best members. All I ever get in exchange is negativity like yours. It is a poll and a question.

If you want to query my intent, why not PM me? Half the respondents only have an admin account. Is that not interesting? You can't use "runas" (sic!) if you don't have two accounts! I hardly ever need to log in with my admin account. Ergo, those of us who use two accounts do so to use "run as" when necessary.

You say,The question part is slam-dunk: yes, you should user (sic!) a regular user account for normal everyday use Well half disagree with you!

I corrected the typo in the title, not that it made the question unclear. Your post has its own typos.

glasskuter · Apr 4, 2025

JMO for what it's worth. I have 2 user accounts both with admin priviledges, one is my daily user and the other is there for testing if my main user account goes wonky. If I'm troubleshooting an issue I like to eliminate it being an account problem before I look to it being a windows problem.

I do not do this as a security measure per se. I am in firm belief that the malware in the wild today is so sophisticated, if a hacker wants into my system, he's going to get into my system no matter what account I am logged into. If it happens, I'll deal with it. I have a lot of data, but none of it is proprietary and all of it is backed up multiple times. What little sensitive data I have is not on my system.

I store no passwords as I use a password manager, clear cache after every session, have 2FA on all my sensitive sites, and very careful about the links I click on. So I do take some measures to protect myself, but I have no paranoia about security. I do not even use bitlocker. Hackers today mainly target larger users than me. If I'm ever a victim, the perp will be very disappointed and I'll be peeved for the 15 minutes it takes me to get back up and running again.

krism · Apr 4, 2025

Uh, by having offspring, you have created the situation wherein that offspring will seek independence. That which you seek to control, it/they will simply seek to get around. Nature. Psychology. A trapped animal seeks to escape. Your average 13yo knows far more about computer internals than you do.

Friend or adversary - to a large extent, it's your choice...

kelper · Apr 4, 2025

I am certain I know far more than the average 13 year old about computers.

krism · Apr 4, 2025

kelper said:
I am certain I know far more than the average 13 year old about computers.

It is my hope that you do! (so to be clear here, I am agreeing with your perception and statement so there is no misunderstanding...)

pseymour · Apr 4, 2025

krism said:
Your average 13yo knows far more about computer internals than you do

Maybe you, but not me.

Bree · Apr 4, 2025

kelper said:
I have two accounts on my laptop, one user and one admin .... Is is worthwhile or do experts recommennd just one account?

glasskuter said:
JMO for what it's worth. I have 2 user accounts both with admin priviledges, one is my daily user and the other is there for testing if my main user account goes wonky. If I'm troubleshooting an issue I like to eliminate it being an account problem before I look to it being a windows problem.

I also have 2 user accounts, both admin, and for very much the same reasons.

Admin or standard user, they both run with standard user privileges most of the time. When either of them tries to run a process with elevated privileges they will be challenged to use admin rights. The only difference is that when an admin account is challenged they just have to click OK, a standard user needs to provide credentials of an admin account before they can click OK.

An admin account can be used as safely as a standard account, provided you think twice before clicking OK.

Oh, almost forgot. I do have standard account too, it's only ever used for testing when answering forum questions about accounts.

Skeptic Mike · Apr 4, 2025

pseymour said:
The difference is the separation provided by the second account. You would have to provide the credentials of the admin account, versus clicking Yes on the UAC dialog box, a dialog box that is easily bypassed by the way. Even if you have UAC set to prompt for creds, the fact that the admin account is not logged in provides a benefit of not having its tokens in memory to be stolen by mimikatz,
for example.

A good explanation of the security advantages of being a normal user.

I've used separate accounts since XP days.

When managing computers for others, I wanted to have the same user experience as they did. So I knew things worked. For some years we had fewer home PCs than users, and I'd never share accounts.

I like to restrict my personalisation to my account, so windows works normally for other users. I've found that I can do most of what I want with user rights. (Context menu, navigation panel, perceived type etc.)

I often install software that only I would use for my user account only.

And I've never felt constrained by working with an ordinary user account.

spapakons · Apr 4, 2025

The average 13yo is no match for me. I am using a computer some 40 years now. They might know a few tricks, but I know these already plus a lot more...

It's like a padawan trying to beat a Jedi Master....

Bree · Apr 4, 2025

Skeptic Mike said:
A good explanation of the security advantages of being a normal user.

I've used separate accounts since XP days.

It was absolutely essential in XP, security was so lax it was a joke.

Things have improved beyond all measure since then. UAC was first introduced in Vista and has been improved on since then.

pokeefe0001 · Apr 4, 2025

I use just an admin account (local - I never use my MS account). Mostly out of laziness, but it's a rare day I don't do a couple things that raise the UAC prompt. If I did set up a general user account I would be repeatedly frustrated and stop using it. I know having separate accounts would be safer but I'll continue living with the risk.

Ghot · Apr 4, 2025

Local / Admin account here.

Scannerman · Apr 4, 2025

kelper said:
I do think teenage children can be a security risk as they like to challenge any rules. Thankfully, I have no offspring. It is a sad fact that some children will defraud their parents.

Aaaw your missing all the fun. There is nothing that compares to walking away from your PC to do something quick and getting distracted long enough to discover that your 11 year old has converted it into a Mine Craft server.

Steve C · Apr 5, 2025

kelper said:
I have two accounts on my laptop, one user and one admin. Each set up as Microsoft accounts with differing email addresses, passwords and fingerprints.

If someone gains access my laptop they can't elevate their privileges without my second fingerprint. Is is worthwhile or do experts recommennd just one account?

I have a user account as a Microsoft account and a local account as an admin account on all my PCs. The latter is used for PC configuration and maintenance otherwise the user account is used.

spapakons · Apr 5, 2025

Scannerman said:
Aaaw your missing all the fun. There is nothing that compares to walking away from your PC to do something quick and getting distracted long enough to discover that your 11 year old has converted it into a Mine Craft server.

As Daffy Duck would say "Shoot him! Shoot him now!"

When my son comes at an age he can use the computer alone (he just turned 5, he cannot even read yet), I will put a password to lock my account and make sure I lock the computer when I am away. He should be a hacker to gain access... If he does gain access, I would be proud of his skills but scold him nevertheless...

Skeptic Mike · Apr 5, 2025

Bree said:
in XP, security was so lax it was a joke.

Things have improved beyond all measure since then. UAC was first introduced in Vista and has been improved on since then.

I remember Mark Russinovich gave a talk about UAC. He said something to the effect that the point of UAC was to remind developers to write software that worked for unprivileged users. In XP days fixing software so that it worked for non-admins was a regular task.

spapakons · Apr 5, 2025

I would like if you could run an application or game with admin rights and after you confirm is safe, you could mark it so you won't be asked again. Unless of course the executable is modified so you must confirm again. I would have no problem using UAC then, but granting access all the time for the same applications I use everyday is not very convenient, so I turn off UAC.

kelper · Apr 5, 2025

I normally use my standard account. If a program needs elevation all I have to do is tap the fingerprint sensor, hardly a nuisance!

spapakons · Apr 5, 2025

kelper said:
I normally use my standard account. If a program needs elevation all I have to do is tap the fingerprint sensor, hardly a nuisance!

Too bad a desktop PC doesn't have one.

kelper · Apr 5, 2025

spapakons said:
Too bad a desktop PC doesn't have one.

It could have.

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Should I use a standard account for every day and have a separate Admin account?

Do you use an admin and a standard account?

Yes, I have both

No, I only have an admin account

Other, because there's always one!

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