Put the "personal" back into your PC

by Gayle Picken

Some things are meant to be shared: sunsets, red wine, and diaper duty, to name a few. Sharing a computer, however, can leave you longing for privacy. Like the time you were greeted by the sickly-sweet grin of your son's latest girlfriend tiled across your desktop, or when your husband "accidentally" deleted all of your Favorites and replaced them with links to professional wrestling sites.

Windows 98 lets you share and be selfish at the same time.  You can set up your computer for multiple users, but also create your own custom desktop, Favorites list, and e-mail folders-- regardless of who else uses your computer.

Claim your personal space
When you set up Windows for multiple users, each person gets a personal profile that stores his/her individual settings. You prefer to use the Desert color scheme and keep your desktop clean, while your spouse likes stormy colors and clutters up the screen with shortcuts.  Whatever your style, your preferred desktop settings are saved and show up only when you are using the computer.

In addition, you can be assured that documents in the My Documents folder are yours and not your daughter's. You can also keep your personal Favorites list private;  no more wading through someone else's long list of links you've never seen before.

Keep your privacy
Follow these steps to set up Windows for multiple users and then enjoy your privacy and personal space.

1. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. Then double-click the Users icon.

A wizard helps you add your name and password, and choose which settings you want saved for your profile.

To add another user, double-click the Users icon again, and then click the New User button.

Now each time you start your computer, log on with your name and a password and Windows 98 brings up your desktop the way you like it. Other family members or coworkers get their own settings too -- without changing yours.

Tip: If you want to change your settings, double-click the Users icon in Control Panel, and then click Change Settings. The more settings you save, the more disk space is used.

Receive your own mail
If you each have your own e-mail account, Outlook Express can create separate accounts for each person who logs on to Windows. This way you get your own e-mail when you log on and other people can't access it.

If you do share an e-mail account with another person, you can't have completely separate mailboxes, but you can sort the mail so other people don't accidentally read messages that were intended for you. Use the Inbox Assistant to have incoming messages automatically sorted into separate mail folders, depending on the criteria you specify.

1. On the Tools menu in Outlook Express, click Inbox Assistant.
2. Click Add.
3. Specify how you want to messages sorted. If you want all messages from a certain person to be sorted, type that person's address in the From box. If you want to sort messages with a particular suject line, specify that subject in the Subject box.
4. Indicate what should happen to these messages. If you want to move them to a particular folder, click Move To, and then specify the folder you want to use.

Tip: You can set up multiple rules for sorting incoming messages. To set your priorities, use the Move Up and Move Down buttons in the Inbox Assistant dialog box.

Share and share alike
Don't let your desktop become the object of a game of tug-of-war. Windows 98 lets each person who uses your computer have his/her own customized environment. If only it could automatically adjust the height of your chair...

Gayle Picken won't share her computer with her 2 1/2 year-old son until Windows can protect her keyboard from those sticky fingers.