Trying to Set Up Users With Access to Different Programs

[John Culkin]

I manage a computer lab and I'm trying to configure a machine running XP
Pro with 5 different users.

For illustrative purposes the machine has 100 programs, all installed from
CDs and all needing the CDs in order to run post-install and I am trying to
set up the 5 users with program access as follows:
KeyUser Administrator
Adult Allowed to access 100 pgms.
HighSchoolAge Allowed to access 75 pgms.
MiddleSchoolAge Allowed to access 50 pgms.
ElementarySchoolAge Allowed to access 25 pgms.

I have tried two approaches both of which generated unsatisfactory results.
(The Desktop and StartMenu moves in both scenarios below were an attempt to
make all 5 User desktops look the same.)

First I moved all the Desktop items, Start Menu entries and Program icons
into Desktop, StartMenu and StartMenu/Programs respectively in "All Users".

On my second attempt I moved all the Desktop items and all the StartMenu
entries to each user's Desktop and StartMenu respectively and then I moved
(1) the desired 25 ElementarySchoolAge program icons to the
ElementarySchoolAge user's Program folder,
(2) the 25 ElementarySchoolAge program icons plus the desired 25
MiddleSchoolAge program icons to the MiddleSchoolAge user's Program folder,
(3) the 50 MiddleSchoolAge program icons plus the desired 25 HighSchoolAge
program icons to the HighSchoolAge user's Program folder
(4) the 75 HighSchoolAge program icons plus the desired 25 Adult program
icons to the Adult user's Program folder, and
(5) the 100 Adult program icons to the KeyUser user's Program folder.

My biggest problem in both cases is that in one User, a CD will start with
the "Play" option showing then that CD in a different User will start with
the "Install" option showing. In other words, one User doesn't recognize
that the a particular program has already been installed.

In another situation, I was informed that the application (I was installing
from a CD) could not write to the CD.

Is there some way for me to succeed in my objective of building a series of
users with step by step increasing and overlapping libraries of programs?

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Wow, I think you need to start with the Group Policy Editor:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307882&Product=winxp

Its use is a bit too complex for may to explain step by step but the above
will explain what it does and how to use it. Essentially, I would use the
editor to assign users to groups and then assign application access by
group.

There is a caveat here, most applications were not created for a multi-user
environment so, in some cases all the users may have access while in other
cases you may be forced to install applications specifically under the given
user's ID. If they are limited users, you would temporarily change them to
administrator, install the app and return them to limited. You can install
the application to the same folder in which it was originally installed. In
this way, you take up no more room on the hard drive but you create the
necessary points for the specific user.