# Multiple User Accounts on a PC



## fredtgreco (Oct 30, 2009)

I have installed Windows 7 fresh on an older laptop that I am going to let the kids use. I would like to set up three user accounts: one for me, one for my wife, and one for the kids. The first two would be Admin accounts. The kids would have a standard account. 

My question is this:
Is there a way to have some (not all) files/documents shared between all the accounts without having duplicates of the files/documents on all three accounts? 

(e.g. the structure is usually C:/Users/User1/Documents or C:/Users/User1/Music, C:/Users/User2/Documents, etc)

I don't want three separate Music folders each with the same 20GB of music in them (60GB total), but I do want each account to be able to play the music.

Any help?


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## Skyler (Oct 30, 2009)

Not sure about Windows 7 specifically, but you usually have a "Shared Documents" folder for that very purpose.

Look in My Computer.


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## fredtgreco (Oct 30, 2009)

Skyler said:


> Not sure about Windows 7 specifically, but you usually have a "Shared Documents" folder for that very purpose.
> 
> Look in My Computer.



The "Public" folder serves that purpose, but I was wondering if there was a way to do this without changing directories.


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## Redbeard (Oct 30, 2009)

Fred,

Try opening Windows explorer, click on 'Libraries' (Win 7 is big on the 'libraries' concept), then right-click on your 'Music' library. There should be an option in the context menu labeled "Share with". I've not used this yet, but it may be a good place to start.


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## carlgobelman (Oct 30, 2009)

fredtgreco said:


> Skyler said:
> 
> 
> > Not sure about Windows 7 specifically, but you usually have a "Shared Documents" folder for that very purpose.
> ...



It's been awhile since I've used Windows, but can't you change the properties of individual folders from private to shared? I don't know how Windows 7 would do it, but I think you can make individual folders shared.


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## Skyler (Oct 30, 2009)

fredtgreco said:


> Skyler said:
> 
> 
> > Not sure about Windows 7 specifically, but you usually have a "Shared Documents" folder for that very purpose.
> ...



There's not much you can do with files on the computer without changing directories. 

If I understand what you're saying, you could hypothetically put a shortcut to the Shared Music folder in the Documents folder of each account. It would still change to the Shared Music folder(or directory) but semi-transparently.


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## fredtgreco (Oct 30, 2009)

OK, here is what I am thinking from poking around a bit:



Create two Admin accounts
Create one Standard account
Remove the default sharing with everyone from Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos (that comes on when you activate a Homegroup I think)
Set new sharing rules with the Standard account for the folders/subfolders I want
It would be easier if I could simply exclude a user from a Homegroup it seems. Has anyone here actually used Win7? Basic guesses aren't exactly helpful.


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## jfschultz (Oct 30, 2009)

Is there an equivalent to 'Create Shortcut' in Windows 7? Try putting the music folder in a shared place. Then use Create Shortcuts to place the shortcuts in the normal place for each user.

Alternatively, is there an option in the player application to specify the location of the music?


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## VictorBravo (Oct 30, 2009)

fredtgreco said:


> I have installed Windows 7 fresh on an older laptop that I am going to let the kids use. I would like to set up three user accounts: one for me, one for my wife, and one for the kids. The first two would be Admin accounts. The kids would have a standard account.
> 
> My question is this:
> Is there a way to have some (not all) files/documents shared between all the accounts without having duplicates of the files/documents on all three accounts?
> ...



Fred, maybe I'm not following the question, but why not just set permissions on certain folders, and take "Ownership" of the folders you don't want accessed? (Edit: the folders being in the user directory, not the specific user directory)

I think you do all this on the Security tab.


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## Semper Fidelis (Oct 30, 2009)

Fred,

Windows 7 allows you to specify where to point the Music (and other folders) to. You could set those up outside of the Users folder in a common folder structure and point each person's library to that common folder. I don't think you need to set up more than one admin to do this.


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## fredtgreco (Oct 30, 2009)

Semper Fidelis said:


> Fred,
> 
> Windows 7 allows you to specify where to point the Music (and other folders) to. You could set those up outside of the Users folder in a common folder structure and point each person's library to that common folder. I don't think you need to set up more than one admin to do this.


I think I understand. Here is what I am trying to end up with:

1. A User Account that mirrors my laptop. This would have a backup of my Outlook, Firefox with all my settings, etc.
2. A User Account that (mostly) mirrors my wife's laptop. This would have a backup of her Outlook, Firefox with all her settings, etc.
3. A User Account for my kids.

I want to have backups of all docs. That is easy, through Dropbox. And any duplicate files are not a problem - they are only 5-6GB total. I just don't want the kids to have access to the files.

I want to be able to access the pictures, music and video, but don't want them duplicated. Most of that material is already duplicated on our laptops to prevent losing all pictures when a laptop HD fails, for example. But I don't want two sets of those files on the same laptop (e.g. in the two user accounts).

This way the laptop could serve all of us (without different interfaces or settings) simply by logging into different user accounts. (Really the only reason I can think of using different UAs, since for the most part it is one person, one PC). This is the only computer I will use this way. 

So I am thinking I need to install the media on the primary UA (mine) and the docs on the specific UAs, and then make the audio/video/pictures part of the "Library" on each UA. Does that make sense?


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## Semper Fidelis (Oct 30, 2009)

Yes. You want to be able to share your pictures, music, and video among 3 user accounts. Instead of placing those three folders within your c:/users/fred/Music folder and the like, try moving the same to c:/common/Music and then set up each user account so that the library for each points to the same folder.

You might even be able to create a c:/users/common/music folder. There are likely other folder arrangements that can be made but I know that you can specify the location of Music, Photos, and Videos for the Libraries so you have a lot of flexibility there.

The only thing I might be concerned about are the wife and kids manipulating or deleting files as they will have permissions to them under my suggestion. This problem could be ameliorated by backing up your media on a USB hdd (which I do anyway) so that, if something is messed up you can always recover it.


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