I believe the reason you can't use the 'Administrator' name is because it's a shadow account belonging to the system. It's usually hidden. While it's possible to mess around with the user management GUI and make it appear, that's a bad idea. I get the impression it isn't meant to be touched, or even looked at. I once made the mistake of deleting it, which instantly hosed the machine. Yay for backups.
Yeah, "run as" doesn't always play well with installers. My usual approach is to create a separate user with admin privileges, and I only log into that account when installing software. Most modern installers will ask you whether to install for only the current user, or for everyone. Unfortunately, a badly-written installer might lack that functionality, or they sometimes put the option in a non-obvious location. I find it's too easy to end up installing a program that no one else can use.
Since you seem interested in the topic, my former colleagues at MIT have a pretty good primer (http://itinfo.mit.edu/article.php?id=7324) on how to configure XP to increase its overall security. It's aimed at campus users of XP Pro, but much of it applies to XP in general.
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Date: 2005-04-24 04:31 am (UTC)Yeah, "run as" doesn't always play well with installers. My usual approach is to create a separate user with admin privileges, and I only log into that account when installing software. Most modern installers will ask you whether to install for only the current user, or for everyone. Unfortunately, a badly-written installer might lack that functionality, or they sometimes put the option in a non-obvious location. I find it's too easy to end up installing a program that no one else can use.
Since you seem interested in the topic, my former colleagues at MIT have a pretty good primer (http://itinfo.mit.edu/article.php?id=7324) on how to configure XP to increase its overall security. It's aimed at campus users of XP Pro, but much of it applies to XP in general.