Need help running QuickBooks Pro 2004 on a Windows 2003 Server in Terminal Services mode

[amin35 *is* my full name]

Anyone here with any experience running QuickBooks Pro 2004 on a
computer running Windows Server 2003 in Terminal Services mode?

We can run it fine if the Terminal Server user is in the
"Administrator" usergroup.

But for security reasons we only want very stripped down users with
limited access to folders, files, and registry keys, etcetera to be
able to run this program.

I've heard tell that one can simply change the permissions and give
any individual user (or group of users) full access to the
HKLM\Software\Intuit\QuickBooksRegistration key and it will work, but
this alone hasn't done it for us.

Anyone have any ideas??

Please post your response, and e-mail a copy to
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Check here:

http://hem.fyristorg.com/vera/IT/TS_apps_QB.htm

 

[admin35]

Thanks. I tried to implement your suggestions, but I still get the
same error message about "restricted access" when I try to run
QuickBooksPro by a simple user in Terminal Services mode. I'm fairly
comfortable with regedt32 and files and permissions, etcetera, but
maybe I've missed something. There are also some suggestions here
that I wonder if maybe I don't understand correctly. Maybe if I take
them one at a time??

<while still in install mode, start QuickBooks and activate it>
I'm not 100% sure what this means. I assume you mean that I should
log into the Terminal Server as an administrator and then open a
command window and run "change user /install". Then I should
double-click on the QBP icon to run the QBP program. I assume I don't
have to run QBP from within the command window. I am not sure what
you mean by "activate it". Is that something I have to do
specifically, or is that what happens when I run the program in
"install mode"?

<go back to execute mode (change user /execute)>
Again I assume that simply opening up a command window and typing in
"change user /execute" is what's required here (sans the " " of
course).

<copy the %systemroot%\Intuit folder into each users
%userprofile%\Windows folder>
I assume here (in my case) that I should copy c:\windows\intuit to
c:\documents and settings\user1\windows. There are only 2 files in
this folder, qbinstal.log and qbinstal_flavor.log.

<create a Quickbooks Users group>
<add your users to this group>
I'm OK with this.

<give the group Full Control to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Intuit\QuickBooksRegistration>
<give the group Full Control to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.QPG>
<give the group Full Control to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\obja.obja>
<give the group Full Control to
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Quickbooks.application - QB Premier 2004 only?>
I'm OK with all of these.

<give the group Modify rights to the Program Files\Intuit\Quickbooks
Pro folder>
I'm OK with this.

I assume the order above is critical. But what if I've already run
the QBP program as teh adminstrator. Should I uninstall the program,
and reinstall it in "change user /install" mode? What if the program
requires a reboot, how does one deal with that in the "install mode"?

Sorry for all the questions. I just hate it when someone has gone to
a lot of trouble to document how to do something, and it still doesn't
work for me. Must be some stoopid thing I'm doing, or that I've done,
that's getting in the way...

 

[admin35]

I am going to respond to my own post here - for the possible benefit
of others...

The solution to my problem (ie. how to enable it so that a group of
"simple users" can run QBP2004 on a Win2003 Server in Terminal
Services mode) was as follows.

1. Read http://hem.fyristorg.com/vera/IT/TS_apps_QB.htm

2. If you've already installed QBP on the Server, then log into the
server as an Administrator and UNinstall it using the Add/Remove
Programs Control Panel. (The rest of the steps below didn't work for
me initially because although I initially installed the program while
the Server was in "install mode" correctly, I ran the program once
first while the Server was in /execute mode. I had to UNinstall the
program and proceed as below.)

3. Log into the Server as an Administrator. Run a Command window and
type in "change user /install". No " " of course. (You can type in
"change user /query" to see which mode it's in at any given moment.
The default on reboot is "change user /execute" mode.)

4. Install QBP using the CD it came on. Reboot at the end as
requested.

5. Log in again as an Administrator, open a Command window, and type
in "change user /install". Run the QBP program once. Type in the
registration key code from Intuit. Then close the program.

6. Go back to the Command window and type in "change user /execute".

7. Find the folders and registry keys (run regedt32 in a Command
window) as described in
http://hem.fyristorg.com/vera/IT/TS_apps_QB.htm.

At this point, it looks like our group of "simple users" can all run
the same version of QBP accessing different files. I haven't tested
it yet, but I assume if a file is in multiuser mode, then all the
users can access that same file...

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Well done, admin35, and thanks for reporting back here!
I'm sorry that I wasn't able to respond faster, but you have
solved the problem in exactly the right way.
Yes, it is crucial that you run the program once, while in install
mode, before doing anything else. I'll add a comment to my website
to stress this point.

For the interested reader: the background to this can be found in
this KB article:

186498 - Terminal Server Application Integration Information
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=186498

 

[admin35]

I felt it was important to "give back" a little, for whatever it is
worth to others. Your www site and your posts in various newsgroups
and threads on this topic were really the best resource on this issue.
I'm happy to contribute a little - at least for those not "in the
know" about this (to me) obscure "install mode issue". If I had only
my QBP sales rep and his tech support person to go on, then I'd doubt
that I would have ever gotten it to work for any user other than those
in the Administrator group.