If the user knows the Administrator's User name and password, almost anything can be accomplished... without it... he can do nothing to impact anything but his own user files.
It's not a bad idea, but a lot of third-party Windows software was written before the idea of limited accounts in Windows existed, and the new versions make use of some of the old code base. I don't know whether Mac has this problem or not, but in Windows it seems legacy compatibility is primary above all else.
It doesn't. Any application will run from a standard user account unless the administrator has not given permission for that user to run it.
The hard drive size wasn't listed on the tag. I could not for the life of me figure out how to find that information.
Right Click on the HD, select Get Info.
I also couldn't figure out the simple task of maximizing a window - the most logical choice for a Windows user is the center of the three little buttons in the upper right-hand corner that have colors instead of icons, but it just resized the window.
It's the upper left corner... Windows controls are on the Right. The Mac uses a different philosophy ... since drag and drop is an important part of the Mac user interface, it doesn't make the window full screen like Windows which would make dragging between windows and applications difficult. Instead the third button, the green one, opens the window as far as necessary to show everything contained in the window horizontally. Clicking it again returns it to where it was before. You may also resize by merely dragging the lower rignt corner. Clicking the green button will again return you to the pre-resize condition. Option/Clicking the green button hides all windows of the currently focused application except the focused window. Repeat unhides them. The yellow button minimizes the focused window to the Dock. Option/Click the yellow button minimizes ALL windows of the currently focused app to the Dock.
It is a fact that most Mac users are far more familiar with Windows than Windows users are familiar with Macs. We often use Windows PCs daily. Most Windows users are like you... if they have any Mac experience it is an hour or less a year or more ago. Mac users are more qualified to make judgments of the comparative ease of use between the two platforms because we are often fully conversant with both. We are. so to speak, bilingual Windows and Mac.
Thanks for the explanation; administrator and more limited accounts obviously are set up differently in OSX from in XP and in many cases XP does not make it as practical for some to run a limited account every day. I don't know whether Vista has fully solved this problem or not.
Right Click on the HD, select Get Info.
As I said, I figured it had to be simple, just not intuitive. In this case the problem was that the computer had the standard Apple-type mouse without a separate right mouse button; IIRC you can hold a key to force a right-click but I don't know which one. I understand you can buy generic USB multi-button mice and OSX will recognize them, which I would do if I were ever forced to use a Mac.
It's the upper left corner... Windows controls are on the Right.
My fault...like I said it's been a year so I forgot exactly where and which color the controls I tried to use were. Having said that, do you realize that you wrote a full paragraph of discussing the Mac "philosophy" (you can drag-and-drop in Windows too, you know, even to/from maximized windows), the actual function of those little unlabeled buttons, and the ability to manually resize a window by dragging the window borders (just like in XP), but you never actually got around to telling me how you actually do maximize a window?