security: password or no password on administrator account

[trolleri]

Which one is more secure?

I already have a harddrive password on my laptop, and the Windows logon is not secure anyway (tools during boot can circumvent the logon) so I use have the administrator password automatically put in during boot.

However, is it safer to have no password on the administrator account, since the automatic-login-password is clear-text in the registry, and thus not secure?

 

[aford10]

It's more secure to have a password. A password is by no means 100% safe, but not having a password isn't safe at all. A decent password will at least keep most of the normal schmoes from getting in.

 

[Pooneil]

Most security is to prevent casual or opportunistic thieves and snoopers. The kind that think if something is not locked, it is free to take. Like the locks on most peoples front door, they are there to prevent walk-ins, not kick-ins.

 

[trolleri]

Are you refering to malware like virusses and trojans could take advantage of a blank administrator password?

I ask because I faintly remember something of a feature like "network sharing" automatically shut off in Windows if the administrator password was blank. If that is true, I guess a weak generic password is worse than a blank one on public networks in this excact case.