How do I run a game on a Limited Account?

[Guest]

I have a game installed on my machine that runs fine when I'm on my account
(which is a computer administrator account). However when my friend trys to
play the game on his account (Limited account) it says hes doesn't have
administrator's rights. I know I can right-click the shortcut and specify
account credentials to run the game but I hate having to put my login and
password in every time he runs the shortcut.

 

[Dave]

first, complain to the game writer... it probably wasn't written to run
under xp limited accounts. to make it run you need to check a couple
things. first, limited accounts can't write to folders under program files
by default. you can try giving your friend write access to the folder where
the game is installed and all the folders under it and see if that lets it
work. the next one to check is to see if the program uses an ini file in
the windows folder, your friend may not be able to write to that either.
the last and worst thing, limited users are not be able to write to some
areas of the registry, these may be harder to find, but search for the
game's name and see if your friends account can write to the branches in the
registry or not... and if not give him permission there also.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I have a game installed on my machine that runs fine when I'm on my account
(which is a computer administrator account). However when my friend trys to
play the game on his account (Limited account) it says hes doesn't have
administrator's rights. I know I can right-click the shortcut and specify
account credentials to run the game but I hate having to put my login and
password in every time he runs the shortcut.

This is quite common 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. 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 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

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH