PRIVACY in my profile on the laptop

candygurl

Hi.
I have an ongoing problem with this.
I have a laptop at home, and my housemate uses it as well.
I am the administrator and she has her own profile, and (supposedly) cant look at my files, i can look at hers, but she has nothing saved on there, she merely uses it for email and checking stuff out on the net.

however, the other day she discovered by accident when she went into 'start' - 'search' and typed in 'mail' because she was looking for something in particular, it asked did she want to search 'internet' or 'everywhere', she clicked everywhere and she got loads of stuff, including my entire hotmail account, and after she told me about this, i discovered that she could click into any of my messages and read them in full. there's also an option to find my 'inbox' and 'sent items' etc and go in there too and just read whatever she likes.
i'm lucky she's not that curious about my private life but i do have a lot of sensitive stuff in there that i dont want to delete and yet she should not be allowed surely to just go and find them like that?

whats the point in having a hotmail account at all if it's all up there and available after i have closed it out and signed off? is this then the case on any computer after you have signed out and left, someone else can do a search and see what you have just said, in your own private email account?

plus whats the point in having different profiles?
it does ask for my permission before she deletes anything, but i have also discovered she can search 'everywhere' for just about anything and look at my private folders, photos and files.

can someone help me to set up my lap top in a way that my stuff remains my stuff. i often have guests in the house and they have used my laptop and my pc while they are there, and i assumed setting up another profile protected me..

thanks for any suggestions.
cg

Conor_3

You need to password protect your account and select the option to keep your files private which is probably the bit you've not done. You also need to make sure her account is set up as a standard user because if it's XP, accounts are set up as an administrator by default and you need to go change it.

If you're worried about it, simply delete her account, make sure yours has a non guessable password such as "re95hv6j8" and tell her to get her own laptop. At the end of the day it's your lappy and you're doing a favour letting her use it. If you don't trust her to keep her nose out or are concerned about others seeing your private stuff, let her get her own. For what she's doing, she could get a netbook and they start under £200.

candygurl

Thanks Conor, i do have a password on my own profile, and she hasnt looked in my files, that is why i am lucky, she pointed it out to me, becuase she knows i let others use it when they stay with me.
it's possible i have not ticked a box that says make files private. but i'm still concerned as to how someone can access my entire hotmail account when it's supposedly closed out .. what if i use it on a public computer to check my mail. or someone elses pc, can they then go and search and find out what i just did? it's all a bit too messy if thats the case, i'll never feel comfortable using any computer to check my mail any more.

but yes, thanks for your suggestion. i think if i go down that route i'll cause conflict with her as it will indicate i dont trust her and i do.

i use Vista and i am the admin, cos when she does anything that involves deleting or changing, it asks for my password..
i'll look into the password section and see does it offer any help

the thing is, it doesnt let her look at my files. if she looks at photos the normal way, none of mine show up, it's when she does a search and selects 'everywhere', then it allows her to see everything that is on the comptuer.

many thanks for your help.
cg