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Your Computer - Shared?

How many people use your computer? Do you take precautions when using shared computers? This thread has been started to discuss issues related to two or more users working on one computer.

Shared Computer Your

At work, I am the only one who uses my computer. At home, my son also uses it. I don't take any special precautions, but I have told him to not download anything on it without consulting me first! The PC is actually owned by the Firm I work for so I tell him that is why he needs to be extra careful with it. Hey, whatever works.

Your Computer - Shared? Gaming Video & Issues Computer

At the school, there are only 3 computers hooked to the internet for teachers in the staff room, and we have a staff of around 40 teachers but most of them do not use it at all, so we are only a small group who usually go online. The precautions I take mostly is with my e-mail account, I make sure to sign off everytime I check it.

At home, I am the only one using my computer.

Shared Computer Your

My pc at home is used by myself, my wife and my daughter. My work laptop which I bring home everyday is used only by me and my wife. I won't allow my daughter to use it, mostly because it is my work pc. Then I have another pc at work which is used by me alone. At work we are not allowed to have multiple accounts set up for each pc, which is nice because then you know you are the only one on that particular machine.
At home, I rely on heavy protection, mostly because of my daughter who visit sites that use a lot of cookies or sometimes download apps automatically. I have a firewall (software and hardware), AV and network monitor. I also have anti-spy and pop-up blocker software installed on the web browser. I also run a spyware remover program once a month, scandisk utility and clear temp files and cookies regularly. So far I haven't had any major issues.

Shared Computer Your

At home, we have two XP laptops, one XP desktop, and now a Mac laptop. The XP desktop and one of the XP laptops are pretty much community property. My wife's laptop is almost exclusively reserved for her, although she occasionally lets some of the children use it to watch movies or something.

I am trying to keep my Mac exclusively for myself, but some of the children have used it a little bit for web browsing. My daughter has used it to edit a movie for a class project.

The XP machines have both software and hardware firewalls (hardware through the wireless router), AV, and spyware sweepers. My old XP laptop has spyware and trojans on it that I have been unable to remove, but regular sweeps keep it mostly under control.

My work laptop is reserved for me. At work, we CAN use other people's computers, but it isn't always successful. For the most part, we each only use our own. My company has very strict AV protection, strong firewalls, and a proxy.

Your Computer - Shared?

I find it a rather rare situation that anyone shares my PC. Once in a great while I will have someone in need of doing something online where my computer is the only one available but that is really odd. I do not go to any great lengths to protect my computer when it is shared however I will if possible stay nearby or assist just to keep an eye on what is going on.

*I do have a co-worker/friend of mine that I loan my laptop to when he is in need of a computer to carry with him. This does not happen often but I trust him completely. After knowing him over 8 years I guess I would have to have a good bit of trust in him. I do not take precautions from him on my computer at all.*

Your Computer Shared

Microsoft has taken the steps of user security in XP to the next level with an optional download of a "Shared Computer Toolkit" for XP. This allows a very simple way for users that may not be familiar with the depth of security settings to manage a system with multiple users efficiently and safely. I advise reading through the overview for this product.

Learn in depth of this download here.

Your Computer Shared Computer Issues & Video Gaming

I share my machine with my wife and oldest son. I don't have more than two user profiles, one for us and one for my remote in from work. I don't take much internal security, but they tend to break things often enough for me to consider it.