Week 4 Lab Activity: Managing Users and Groups on Windows
Objective:
In this lab, students will practice creating and managing user accounts and groups on a
Windows system, setting permissions, and controlling access to directories. By completing
these tasks, students will learn how to organize and secure user access within a Windows
environment.
Lab Tasks
1. Creating and Managing User Accounts
● Task: Create two user accounts: one with standard permissions and another with
administrator permissions.
● Instructions:
1. Open Control Panel → User Accounts → Manage Another Account.
2. Click Add a new user in PC settings.
3. In the Settings window, go to Family & other users.
4. Select Add someone else to this PC to create a new account.
5. Set up one user as a Standard User and another with Administrator privileges.
6. Log in as each user to verify their access levels.
● Verification: Confirm that the standard user has limited access, while the administrator
user has full permissions.
2. Creating and Assigning Groups
● Task: Create two groups: "Developers" and "Support," and assign users to these
groups.
● Instructions:
1. Open Computer Management by typing "Computer Management" in the
Windows search bar.
2. Navigate to Local Users and Groups → Groups.
3. Right-click inside the Groups panel and select New Group.
4. Create a group named Developers and another group named Support.
5. To add users to each group, double-click the group (e.g., "Developers"), select
Add, and choose the user accounts you created in Task 1.
● Verification: Confirm that each user has been added to the correct group by checking
each group’s membership list.
3. Setting and Testing Permissions
● Task: Set permissions for each group on a specific folder to control access.
● Instructions:
1. Create a test folder, such as C:\TestFolder, and place a sample file inside
(e.g., sample.txt).
2. Right-click the folder, select Properties → Security → Edit.
3. Add the "Developers" and "Support" groups to the list of users and groups in the
Security tab.
4. Set Read-only permissions for the "Developers" group and Read and Write
permissions for the "Support" group.
5. Log in as each user and attempt to open, edit, and save the sample.txt file to
test the permissions.
● Verification: Ensure that only users in the "Support" group can modify the file, while
users in the "Developers" group can only read it.
4. Removing Users and Groups
● Task: Remove one user account and one group from the system.
● Instructions:
1. In Computer Management, go to Local Users and Groups → Groups.
2. Right-click the "Developers" group and select Delete to remove the group.
3. Next, go to Local Users and Groups → Users, right-click on the standard user
account you created earlier, and select Delete.
● Verification: Check that the deleted user and group are no longer available in the
system’s user and group listings.
Completion Checklist
1. Two user accounts were created: one with standard permissions and one with
administrator permissions.
2. Two groups were created: "Developers" and "Support," with users assigned to each.
3. Permissions were set for each group on a test folder, and access was verified.
4. One user and one group were successfully removed from the system.
Submission Requirements
● Screenshots of each completed task showing users, groups, and permission settings.
● Short written answers to the following questions:
1. Why is it beneficial to assign permissions through groups instead of
directly to individual users?
2. What could go wrong if a standard user account is given administrator
privileges?
3. How do access permissions contribute to system security?
