Daniel said:
I have WinXP professional and want to work with unprivileged user.
The question is how do I install programs for that user. If I use
"Run As" to run installation as Administrator or just install from
Administrator account, some programs are installed for Administrator
only. What I do now when I want to install some program for
unprivileged user is I make that user member of Administrators,
login and install program, then I remove the user from
Administrators group. Is there an easier way??
Shenan said:
Most of the time what you are seeing is just startr menu/desktop
items not being created when you install as an administrator. Don't
make someone an administrator just for an installation. Using "Run
As" or logging in as an administrator usually gets the application
installed fine.. You then need to manually copy/move the shortcuts
to the application to the appropriate folders so the user(s) can
see/use it. (All Users is usually a fine choice.)
There will be programs that require some "fiddling" to get them to
work with NORMAL user accounts.. Such as file/directory permissions
- perhaps opening up as few as a single file to read/write by
"users" - sometimes even registry values must be given special
permissions to allow a "user" to run them.
It's the wonderful world of the system admin.. Give as little as is
needed to do the job while maintaining productivity - otherwise they
may be able to do too much and ruin all your work anyway..
What about registry entries that some programs add to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER? If I run installation as Administrator those
entries will be added to HKEY_CURRENT_USER of Administrator only....
Thank you!
Shenan said:
Should be fine and still there... What people seem to miss with
HKEY_Current_User is that there are only parts of it replaced by the users
NTUSER.DAT file when those entries are loaded. Some entries are cross-user.
If your applications aren't just unbelievably archaic, they will either
write in one of those areas that won't be overwritten OR they will recreate
what they need as the user runs it the first time in their registry
settings.
--
<- Shenan ->
--
The information is provided "as is", with no guarantees of
completeness, accuracy or timeliness, and without warranties of any
kind, express or implied. In other words, read up before you take any
advice - you are the one ultimately responsible for your actions.
It seems like I have such an "unbelievably archaic" programs, although they
are not archaic, they behave like. I'm talking about MyIE2 and AI RoboForm.
I just can't manage make them working in MultiUser environment. RoboForm
won't run for user that didn't install it. It says I must reinstall it.
After installing it for each user that will use it (temporary giving
administrative privileges for each user. Is there another way?) it seems to
work, but then it's toolbar sometimes disappears.
MyIE2 saves some user specific info in it's Program Files folder and not in
user's Application Data folder, so Last Visited Pages of specific user got
messed up with another user. And if I use Fast User Switching and run MyIE
stimulatingly for two users it sometimes just hangs.
I'm sure there are more programs that are not designed to run in MultiUser
environment. I'm not sure if it's possible to trick them to work
correctly... I was trying to find some generic guide or something alike, but
couldn't find anything... It seems that most home users just work as
administrators to avoid those problems.
