Niteowl said:
Hi all,
I'm the volunteer IT guy at a small charter school, all computers are XP Pro
SP2.
One of my teachers just installed an older program, it did not offer to
install for "all users", she installed under the "teacher" profile which is
an admin acct, but I need to link it to a limited acct for "students".. is
this possible? Is it as simple as dragging a shortcut to the "student"
desktop folder? ... or do I have to install to the "student" acct. (which
would mean changing it to an admin acct long enough to install at least),
and then after changing it back would it still likely work?
Is there any other options to "fix" this?
thanks,
niteowl
If the legacy application the teacher installed places its
shortcuts only in the Start Menu of the person performing the
installation, all that you may have to do is move those Start Menu
entries to the same location in the All Users profile.
Further, such an incompatible application may offer additional
"challenges:"
You may experience some problems if the software was designed for
Win9x/Me, or if it was intended for WinNT/2K/XP,Vista, but was
improperly designed. Quite simply, the application doesn't "know" how to
handle individual user profiles with differing security permissions
levels, or the application is designed to make to make changes to
"off-limits" sections of the Windows registry or protected Windows
system folders.
For example, saved data are often stored in a sub-folder under the
application's folder within C:\Program Files - a place where no
inexperienced or limited user should ever have write permissions.
It may even be that the software requires "write" access to parts
of the registry or protected systems folders/files that are not normally
accessible to regular users. (This *won't* occur if the application is
properly written.) If this does prove to be the case, however, you're
often left with three options: Either grant the necessary users
appropriate higher access privileges (either as Power Users or local
administrators), explicitly grant normal users elevated privileges to
the affected folders and/or part(s) or the registry, 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:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin
Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell
The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot
