I would appreciate any feedback you may have because I would like this feature on the elgg site but since majority of email will come from me as the admin I will not risk users have access to the admin profile

thanks

Are you logged in as an admin at the time?  Admins are allowed to edit user settings and change passwords.  Test while logged in as a non-admin user.

thank matt,

i thought initially that because I was using message 1.9 plugin and user validation by email plugin there was confusion but your suggestion seems work when no other windows are open