This problem you describe is affected by all operating systems, not just windows. When physical access is available to the pc, security goes out the window. Anything you do will only slow them down, not prevent entirely.
Suggestion: Get rid of the roommates.
well ill try setting it to boot from hd only and set a password for bios, that should be good enough, there not exactly geniuses. thanks for the info on bitlocker i dont think ill use it on the c drive but ill use on all the other ones.
ekj111 did you read the tutorial I posted on Bitlocker?
Please remember whether it's bios password or Bitlocker password; if you forget them or don't have them stored in a safe place with access for you bad things will happen.
well i cant kick them out because im renting too. but i came up with a much simpler way too keep them out, put a lock on the door. i didn't do this before because its not my house but after asking they said it was fine so ill just do that. i guess it doesn't hurt to ask.
Unfortunately, this is THE answer. The real problem comes from the physical access to the computer. Security-wise, the ultimate goal of an attacker is precisely to get physical access to a system, under that condition, he can do ANYTHING he wants, having no restrictions at all. Any security system will only pose problems, all solvable being able to manipulate the whole computer.
The Windows login is reasonably good, but the thing is if your roommates can boot an external OS it can bypass them all, crack the passwords offline as he please and control everything if he really wants. Any OS is vulnerable to this really. Even full disk encryption can be cracked if given enough time, but may slow down for it to be not worth the effort.
You might want to consider remove the HD altogether if you're not around.
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