Multiple accounts, one Windows installation; how to?

[kiddingguy]

My parents do use their computers (they have 2 seperate notebooks) on a not-so-regular basis. One notebook cannot be upgraded to Windows 11.

So, there's basically two options:
1. Get a new laptop with Windows 11, use the older one which has W11 installed
2. Have one notebook, with to accounts (one for my mum, the other for my dad) - plus is saves licensing costs

My questions are on the second option:

- If one harddrive is partitioned, can user A have partition 1 as default storage option, and user B partition 2 [and not see each other partitions]
- Cana a "super-admin" account be created (for e.g. me) if something goes wrong, get accidently deleted or whatever to restore and login in for both accounts/troubleshooting?

Or is 2 laptops the easier way on tackling and handling this

Or do you guys recommend a different setup on this situation?

[Som]

Yes it can be done the way you're saying. The question is why would you do that. Windows separates it's users documents in folders. If you're worried about privacy then create one admin account for yourself, and two standard accounts for your parents. They won't be able to access yours or the other account without your admin password 

[kiddingguy]

On 04/02/2025 at 19:41, Som said:

Yes it can be done the way you're saying. The question is why would you do that. Windows separates it's users documents in folders. If you're worried about privacy then create one admin account for yourself, and two standard accounts for your parents. They won't be able to access yours or the other account without your admin password 

I'm not worried about privacy. Just ease of use. And possible saving 'mistakes' onto another partition.

So, can I have one partition 'hidden' (not being displayed) to avoid saving errors on one user?

From what I understood is that on the C:/ ("Windows") partition a 'folder' is being created for users. Which is good, but given HDD size on the Windows installation, I would like to have an additional HDD for just documents and stuff. And that 'docs'-HDD in two partitions (one accessable for my mum for her user, and another partition for my dad on his Windows accouns)

[Som]

If you have pro version of windows you may be able to alter group policies  to hide partitions

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/group-policy/using-group-policy-objects-hide-specified-drives

You can also 1. Use group policies to move the user folder, 2. Do it through the registry, 3. Move them manually via folder properties, 4. Use windows settings to do it 5. Use third part software , I can't remember any off hand 

Guide below 

https://www.thewindowsclub.com/change-default-save-location-windows-10

As someone who has elderly parents and also has being fixing computers for (sigh two decades now) , my advice is to go the simplest route. Windows is easy to fix and also even easier to reinstall.

 

[Matthew S.]

On 04/02/2025 at 13:58, kiddingguy said:

I'm not worried about privacy. Just ease of use. And possible saving 'mistakes' onto another partition.

So, can I have one partition 'hidden' (not being displayed) to avoid saving errors on one user?

From what I understood is that on the C:/ ("Windows") partition a 'folder' is being created for users. Which is good, but given HDD size on the Windows installation, I would like to have an additional HDD for just documents and stuff. And that 'docs'-HDD in two partitions (one accessable for my mum for her user, and another partition for my dad on his Windows accouns)

What your wanting to do doesn't actually make sense, however you can repoint the users subfolders (eg. Documents, Pictures, etc...) to new locations (this is supported by default in Windows 11 via the folder properties dialog), however if you do anything through the registry (i've done it in the past to move the entire C:\Users\ folder to another drive) you risk being unable to install updates, and considering windows at least once a year does a complete OS upgrade install that will break things.

The way I do things is now a days is point C:\Users\Username\Documents to D:\Username\Documents and just set correct ACL permissions on the folders, only admin level access can do anything with the folders, the users are limited to their own locations,

[+Dick Montage Subscriber²]

This sounds like massively overengineering a situation to turn a problem into a maintenance disaster.

Just use two separate user accounts and relocate the folders as Matthew S suggested.  Or use OneDrive.

[kiddingguy]

Thanks for all the advice.

I'm not looking to overcomplicate things, privacy is not an option.

Still they can remain admin (an admin-user and not standard from within Windows) on their own machine in case they need to install software or whatever. And with repointing the users subfolders with already available options (like indeed folder properties dialog) [thx @Matthew S.for the tip], I think it should be done this way,

The relocation can still remain to other partitions like E:\Documents (for mum) and so on, and F:\Documents etc. (for my dad).

Is it wise to have an (admin) account for me as well on that machine, or wil these two account suffice?
Maybe a password/pincode to enter their user-account might be an option, though not really necessary I guess.

[Matthew S.]

While yes the machine is for them, they should not be admin-level accounts.