(no subject)

[camwyn]

Last night I stayed at the office until eight to run systems inventory software on all the users' computers. On quite a few, I had to log in with an administrator-level ID because I didn't know the users' passwords. I left notes on every single computer where I did this to say 'please make sure you log in using your password and ID'.

So far this morning I've had four people come to me saying they couldn't get into their computer. All of them have insisted they were sure their passwords were right.

And then all four meekly admitted that not only had they not looked at the user name boxk, but that they had no clue what their user IDs were because none of them have had to change the contents of that box in months.

Comments

[unsigned.livejournal.com]

Wow...heh, well at least I'm not the only one that has users like this!

On an unrelated note, what books are you using to get through the MCSE? If you don't mind sharing anyway.

[camwyn]

So far, Microsoft's training courses (the E-learning classes are around $350 each) and the MS Windows Server 2003 Core Requirements box set.

[unsigned.livejournal.com]

Great!
Thanks, now I can open it. :)

[ouatic-7.livejournal.com]

At my company, the Help Desk is like that.

[unsigned.livejournal.com]

Well we don't have a help desk, per se. I mean, we have me, and I do just about everything. So if something goes wrong, or someone can't do anything, I generally end up with the problem.

But it's amazing the boundless limits of human... obliviousness.

[crisavec.livejournal.com]

Thats a fairly common issue. I was looking into seting the reghack that clears the last entered username and my first line tech(who's also the IT manager...strange breakdown of dutys with her being the manager and day to day assistant and me being the network admin) and she threatened to beat me if I did that because not a single person in the building knew their user ID.

[unmisha.livejournal.com]

Ha! I giggle. :) We don't have that problem anymore because the login name field is cleared. But while we were changing, ho boy! Now we just have people whining about how many passwords they have, and 'do they *have* to change it?' when it expires.

[duane-kc.livejournal.com]

What OS are you using? Might be a good idea to implement regular password changes since, if they're not using the passwords, your security is already compromised.

Even just having to hit CTRL-ALT-DEL and enter their password at boot might help.

[camwyn]

Windows XP. And they do have password changes. THey just never deal with their user IDs.

[unsigned.livejournal.com]

You could force them to input the User ID too. If you wanted. But then again, you might face open rebellion with calls for your head. In which case, you blame it on a system error and say it'll all be normal when they log back in the next day. Heh.