In a situation where many family members share access to the same computer it makes sense to set up user accounts for each person.

In Windows XP do this by following the User Accounts link in Control Panel, or use the User Accounts and Family Accounts link in Vista.

Note, though, that anyone issued with an Administrator account has a high degree of control over all aspects of the computer, including the ability to block access by other users.

For this reason, it’s sensible to limit the distribution of Administrator-level accounts ­ one each for mum and dad, say.

Computeractive staff