Re: User can't edit desktop

On Wed, 28 Sep 2005 11:41:56 -0700, gregf wrote:

> On some of my XP PCs, only the admin login can edit (ie remove icons
> from) the desktop. Some of them, one logged in as the customer/user
> account, can't do this. What setting do I need to change to allow users
> to edit icons, at least for a moment so that I can delete icon on the
> desktop and then change permissions back?

If I'm reading you right, I think the problem stems from the fact that in
Windows XP, icons on a user's "Desktop" can actually exist in one of two
directories: The shared Desktop directory (often C:\Documents and
Settings\All Users\Desktop) and that user's own, personal Desktop
directory (often C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Desktop). It is
likely that the icons these non-admin users cannot edit exist in the first
of these two directories, which they usually won't have the permissions to
modify.

The solution I would recommend is to copy all the shortcut files in
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop into each of your users'
personal Desktop directories, then remove the originals. Now each user
will have their own copies which they can modify and delete as they see
fit, without affecting the Desktops of other users.

Another solution, which I would not recommend due to security
implications, would be to change the access control list on the directory
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop such that the group "Users" is
given Write permissions on the directory. This may only be possible on XP
Pro and, again, is not recommended for security's sake.

Good luck,
Mark

--
Mark Shroyer
http://plaza.ufl.edu/mshroyer/


.

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