problem installing and running IE plugins with limited profile

From: lgourley (lgourley_at_roanoke.k12.va.us)
Date: 02/07/04 

Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2004 19:11:08 -0800

I am working in a school with 150 new Compaq computers running XP. We have successfully created a teacher profile with normal admin privileges and a limited user account for students.

Our problem is that the limited user account will not run plug-ins installed under the Admin profile. Some examples include Shockwave and Flash. Currently, this problem is preventing hundreds of students from having access to thousands of educational web sites. Our technicians have not been able to solve this problem.

We are still trying to define the problem - is this an issue of changing access to a program file or an issue of changing permissions on the registry key for each plug-in vendor? Or something else?
I have located some possible solutions (pasted below) but don't want to try them until we better define the problem.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Larry Gourley
Roanoke City Public Schools

------------------------------------------------
Referenced Articles:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q307091#appliesto

Certain Programs Do Not Work Correctly If You Log On Using a Limited User Account
View products that this article applies to.
This article was previously published under 307091

WORKAROUND
To work around this behavior, you can grant Administrative access to individual programs by using the following steps:

   1. Right-click the program’s file name or shortcut.
   2. Click Advanced, click Run with different credentials, and then click OK.
   3. Start the program.
   4. When you receive a prompt, enter an administrative user ID and password.

>From 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."

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