Re: Program Problems for non-administrators

Kenny McClure wrote:
Hello, I have a homemade computer w/Athlon 1,3 GHz processor & 256 Mb RAM. I recently installed Win XP pro over Win 98 (original). I made my wife & I administrators and made my daughter a user (for lack of a better term). All programs seem to run well for my wife & I but hardly anything runs right for the user, Programs will come up & say they're not all the way installed on USER but they run OK for the administrator. The user cant burn CDs because the media player absolutely wont function in her account but switch it to an administrator and all is well. User accounts will say they have an older version of a program but the administrators account says everything is up to speed. I can update things , if needed, in the admin accounts but as designed, I cant update anything for the user in that account. I've tried looking at paths to make sure all programs are going to the same executing command and that if there are any other needed file locations that they too are pointed in the right place but I'm lost after that. Any pointers?

Kenny




You may experience some problems if the software was designed for Win9x/Me, or if it was intended for WinNT/2K/XP, but was improperly designed. Quite simply, the installation routine for this application doesn't "know" how to handle individual user profiles, or the application tries to make changes to "off-limits" sections of the registry or protected Windows system folders. Quite often, you can make this software available to other users by _copying_ the Start Menu folder and Desktop folder shortcuts from the user profile from which the software was installed in the corresponding folders in the user profile(s) in which you'd like the software to be accessible. If the application is something that can/should be made available to all current and future users, copying the shortcuts into the corresponding locations of the All Users profile will do the trick.

For some obscure reason, game developers in particular seem to not understand WinXP's file security paradigm, and require even limited users to have unnecessarily high privileges to protected systems folders. For example, saved games are often stored in a sub-folder under the game's folder within C:\Program Files - a place where no inexperienced or limited user should ever have write permissions.

NOTE: This may not work if the software requires access to parts of the hard drive and/or registry that are not normally accessible to regular users. (This won't occur if the application was properly written.) If this does prove to be the case, however, you're left with two options: Either grant the necessary users appropriate higher access privileges (either as Power Users or local administrators), or replace the application with one that was properly designed specifically for WinNT/2K/XP.

Some Programs Do Not Work If You Log On from Limited Account
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q307091

    Additionally, here are a couple of tips suggested, in a reply to a
different post, by MS-MVP Kent W. England:

"If your game or application works with admin accounts, but not with
limited accounts, you can fix it to allow limited users to access the
program files folder with "change" capability rather than "read" which
is the default.

C:\>cacls "Program Files\appfolder" /e /t /p users:c

where "appfolder" is the folder where the application is installed.

If you wish to undo these changes, then run

C:\>cacls "Program Files\appfolder" /e /t /p users:r

If you still have a problem with running the program or saving
settings on limited accounts, you may need to change permissions on
the registry keys. Run regedit.exe and go to HKLM\Software\vendor\app,
where "vendor\app" is the key that the software vendor used for your
specific program. Change the permissions on this key to allow Users
full control."


--

Bruce Chambers

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