Re: Modified registry keys, can't restore permissions
From: Fred Ma (fma_at_doe.carleton.ca)
Date: 07/04/04
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Date: Sat, 03 Jul 2004 20:54:42 -0400
Ben Myers wrote:
>
> Fred,
>
> There's a very fundamental issue here, and Micro$oft and Hp are BOTH culpable.
>
> With Windows 2000, only an administrator can install software. There is no
> clean and easy way to work around this, unless the software install takes this
> into account somhow (usually by faking admin priveleges during the install).
> Thank Microsoft for this one.
>
> I first ran into this problem with either ROXIO or Nero (I forget which) CD
> burning software which never installed right on a Win 2000 system, and you could
> not burn a CD unless you had admin privileges. The company finally issued a
> patch to work around the problem.
>
> The above is fine for the corporate IT weenies for who Win 2000 was intended,
> but for those of us who have to do real work with computers, it simply sucks.
>
> Sounds like HP fell into the same trap... Ben Myers
MS may be responsible for a less than perfect OS, but I believe that the
current situation is not due to MS. For one thing I *do* use the admin
account to install software. I do not want the nonadministrator account
to have that capability. The whole reason for advising that people use
nonadmin accounts for regular work is for safety. Limited damage in case
we do something goofy or get infected by malware. Since I was using an
admin account (and was in fact advised to create a 2nd admin acount for
this purpose, in case permissions were the problem), it is
puzzling that any registry changes were needed at all. Here is an excerpt
of some communication, which underlies the reason why I do not blame MS.
Hmm. Actually, I better paraphrase the main idea, since I made some strong
(though well justified) accusational statements. The main problem is that
HP is advising certain steps like the registry permission changes without
including a registry export step. I thought it was missing because the
permissions change was reversible. I voiced concerns about the security
risk and reversibility several times. I was condescendingly and impatiently
told that it was a small matter, and no big deal. All it did was
allow others to access those keys. I had no idea about the ramifications
at the time, and it seems that my concerns were simply ignored. I even
described how I deliberately use a nonadministrator account for its safety.
Well, if tech expert there knows this and thinks the registry change is OK,
HP would never compromise their reputation by falsely reassuring me about
its acceptability, would they??? HP is a very reputable company, and it
seems like their tech support is pretty knowledgeable. Well, I guess I'm
wiser.
Another issue is why the driver/installer is built in such a way to need
such permission changes at all. In fact, even with this change, the
software ran into some serious problems, which were attributed to my use
of NTFS. Apparently, NTFS didn't even exist when this product was released.
That is understandable, but it does not excuse the blanket statement that the
product works under Windows 2000. Not only does it require the FAT32 of
earlier windows systems, it must cripple Win2K's security distinction between
different users to even partially work. And this is with quite a large number
of days of trying to make it work.
We may blame MS for many anguishes over their OS, but the above two paragraphs
are why I do not blame MS in this case.
Fred
-- Fred Ma Dept. of Electronics, Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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