Two Administrators (Home SP-2)

[peterg]

<P ID="edit" class=small>(Edited by peterg on 10-Mar-05 07:45. Amendment.)</P>I don't know how I got them, but I have two separate Administrators on one computer, one called Administrator and the other Administrator.(computer name). This is in addition to having two users with administrator privileges. From the dates and contents (one has 4 folders and the other has twelve) it appears that one is obsolete and may date from the time that I installed SP-2, or else made network changes. NTUSER.DAT.LOG is the only file that appears to be identical. I would welcome advice on how to deal with this.

Either this or something else is causing me to get the following error message for PaperPort 9 SP-3 for one user only:
Access is denied.
Unable to open registry key SoftwareScanSoftPaperPortConfig
Please make sure you have read permissions for this key.

The program was installed so as to be available to all users. I think read permissions are a result of having private folders, so I unchecked all of the 'private' boxes for both users, without success.

A complication has arisen, which I had better append: Administrator (the old folder) has a System attribute, where Administrator.Spot (the apparently active folder), does not.

[DaveA]

Did some one try to reinstall Windows over it self?

[peterg]

I doubt it very much, but I think I did have a lot of trouble getting SP-2 to install.

[peterg]

The more I think of it, the more I suspect that you are correct. I may have tried a repair install or something like that, and since the computer has a name (the desktop is Spot, the portable is Rover, and the cell phone is Fido), I may have included the name in one installation but not the other.

Everything is working perfectly with the exception of this minor nuisance, the program is available to the other user (who also happens to be me), so I'm reluctant to take risks. On the other hand, if you can suggest any modest experiments I would be willing to explore them.

[StuartR]

This is perfectly normal after multiple installations on the same PC.

The first time you install Windows it will create profiles called Administrator etc. If you then install it again it won't use the existing profiles, as they are associated with a different installation, so it creates the ones called Administrator.Computername etc.

You can delete the old profiles from Control Panel > System > Advanced > User Profiles > Settings... if they are taking up too much disk space or otherwise causing problems, but I suggest just ignoring them as this is safest.

StuartR

[peterg]

I love posts (and diagnoses in general) that say 'This is perfectly normal'. For this relief, much thanks!