Documents & Settings

[lullabelle]

I have my own laptop but son and hub use the main desktop in our home. The harddrive, however, is just about full. So I've been looking around and see SO MUCH, what "I" would call junk .... but then again, I'm not sure. Compared to most of you here I"m sure I am a novice.

Anywho, I did a general search for *.gif and came up with 7,553 files !!!! Lots of these are under, for instance, Documents and Settings, default user, desktop, then TONS of files under there.

Also, to sign in on my computer there are 2 options ..... but under documents and settings, there are HP administrator, all users, default user, drag racer v3, administrator .... what are all these and are they necessary?

Sorry if these are stupid questions; am afraid to just start deleting !!

 

[seavixen32]

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

It sounds as though loads of different user accounts have been set up on your computer.

Go into Start>Control Panel>User Accounts....... and see just how many accounts are on your hard drive. You'll then need to liaise with your menfolk to see which ones can be deleted.

 

[lullabelle]

Ok: start/control panel/user accounts:

The Boss (computer administrator)
Guest (turned off)
Test (computer administrator)

The only one I"m familiar with is The Boss (parents !)

What's the diff between HP_Administrator and Administrator under D&S ? Sooo much on my machine that needs deleted I don't know where to begin (14 yr old son been downloading for TOOO long !)

 

[severedsolo]

I imagine that HP_Administrator is the built in Windows admin account, used if you accidentally lock yourself out of or delete your own administrator account.

Test, seems a bit odd... I'd check through it, but you can probably delete that one.

On the subject of loads of GIF's, I wonder if these are temp Internet files? CCleaner always throws loads of gifs at me, when it's cleaning. You can give your PC a good cleanup by using this great free program:CCleaner - Optimization and Cleaning - Free Download It removes all temporary files, and if it's never been done, could save you qute a bit of space.

Just a bit of friendly security advice here. It is a REALLY bad Idea to run XP as an Admin account for day to day tasks. If you were to contract something nasty, it could easily install itself without your knowledge and have access to your entire machine. If you run as a Standard User (or limited user as I believe they are called in XP) and only use Admin when needed (installing programs basically) then you will be much more secure, as anything that did get through, (and from the sounds of it your son is downloading all over the place) would not have access to key systems.

 

[seavixen32]

Being the cynical dad and grand-dad that I am I wouldn't be surprised if your son created the test account for himself.

You're the Boss, you need to be a lot stricter.

 

[lullabelle]

Documents and Settings:
+Administrator
+All users
+Default user
+Drag Racer V3
+Eric (my son)
HP_ADM~1~YOU
HP_Administrator
HP_Administrator.YOUR-4DACDOEA75

I want to keep ONE of them ......... !!

 

[lullabelle]

SEVEREDSOLO ... I have CCleaner and run it routinely .... but it's not getting all those gif's. I've looked at them; they look like TONS of pix/shots from games they play (i.e. World of Warcraft: anvil, axe, window, wall, etc. over 7,000 of them.) Can they be deleted if they are under D&S, an account that's not used?

 

[seavixen32]

Documents and Settings:
+Administrator
+All users
+Default user
+Drag Racer V3
+Eric (my son)
HP_ADM~1~YOU
HP_Administrator
HP_Administrator.YOUR-4DACDOEA75

I want to keep ONE of them ......... !!

I would be inclined to keep HP_Adminstrator account and delete the rest. When you do, choose the option to delete the user files to free up more disc space.

Create a new user account for yourself and if your son insists on his own account, give him a guest account so that if he wants to do anything out of the ordinary he'll have to see you first.

And, MORE IMPORTANTLY, make sure you give your own account a good, strong password so that he can't get into it.

 

[severedsolo]

If they are in an unused account, I would say they probably can.

However! I am unfamiliar with how WoW stores it's content. If it's like most games, then I imagine it would store it in "Documents and Settings\<Account Name>\Documents" According to this link: Where does WOW store its user data on your PC - Overclockers Australia Forums the actual WoW user data is stored in a folder called Wtf. Just bear this in mind, it may be worth backing up those gifs somewhere before deleting it, just to check your son hasn't lost his World of Warcraft saves/content/whatever. (I have no idea how it works....)

Having said that, it is highly unlikely that they would be storing the User Data in somebody elses Account, so it's probably safe.

edit: seavixen's idea is good advice also, as long as you back up everything you don't want to lose first. Again though, I would not run as an Administrator account on XP for everyday usage, a Standard account is more than sufficient for 90% of tasks.

 

[Sub Styler]

Wow and gifs

WoW was at least 7 GB when I used to play years ago, there has been at least one expansion since then.

You can never accidentally delete his saved games as they are stored on the server so no matter what machine he is on he will load WoW at the same point.

The gifs found are most likely parts of the game as it is made of thousands of objects.

Worst case scenario: he will have to re-install (I hope you have fast broadband as this takes some downloading, even with the disks)