Windows XP for Starters: The Missing Manual: Exactly What You Need to Get Started

2.4. Start Log Off

This command is at the heart of Windows XP's accounts feature, in which each person who uses this PC gets to see his own desktop picture, email account, files, and so on (see Chapter 12). When you're logged into a network domain, this is one of the most important features of all. You should log off your computer any time you walk away from it, especially if your computer stores confidential information. If this is a home computer and it doesn't store confidential information, you can safely ignore this option forever.

Choosing this command presents one of two dialog boxes, depending on whether your computer is logged into a network domain, or whether or not you log on to a standalone or workgroup computer that has the Windows XP feature called Fast User Switching turned on. (You can't use Fast User Switching on a computer that logs on to a network domain.)

• Switch User/Log Off . If you see the dialog box shown at the top of Figure 2-4, then Fast User Switching is turned on (as it is on any fresh Windows XP installation for a standalone or workgroup computer). It's among the most useful new features in Windows XP, since it lets somebody else log into the computer, opening up his own world of documents, email, desktop picture, and so on. Meanwhile, whatever you had up and running remains open behind the scenes. After the interloper is finished, you can log on again to find all of your open programs and documents exactly as you left them on the screen.

  Although this is a handy Windows XP feature, it can also be the least secure. When user accounts aren't assigned passwords, anyone can access anyone else's information as easily as clicking the person's name .

• Immediate log off . If you see the dialog box shown at bottom in Figure 2-4, either you're logged into a network domain or Fast User Switching has been turned off. When you click Log Off (or press Enter), Windows closes all open programs and then presents the classic Welcome to Windows dialog box so that the next person can log on.

  Figure 2-4. Top: On workgroup computers, if Fast User Switching is turned on, this is what you see when you choose Start Log Off. Both buttons return to the Welcome screen, but clicking Switch User leaves all of your programs open and in memory, while Log Off actually closes them.

  Bottom: On domain-network computers (or any PC with Fast User Switching turned off), this starker dialog box appears when you choose Start Log Off.

• If you click Cancel in either case, you're sent right back to whatever you were doing.