Restricted account - OE will not open

[Teneo]

Hi

I put my kids logon account on restricted, from administrator, and when I
click their name and login the desktop is not quite the same ( icons not
layed out the way they have it but all nice and in lines, theirs are
splattered all over the place ) and cannot start outlook express. Switch
them back to administrator and click their name, icons all over the place
and can start outlook.

Its as if it is a different account when in restricted mode.

Any Ideas ?

Cheers

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi

I put my kids logon account on restricted, from administrator, and when I
click their name and login the desktop is not quite the same ( icons not
layed out the way they have it but all nice and in lines, theirs are
splattered all over the place ) and cannot start outlook express. Switch
them back to administrator and click their name, icons all over the place
and can start outlook.

Its as if it is a different account when in restricted mode.

Any Ideas ?

Cheers

Since we cannot see your screen you need to tell us what exactly happens
when you double-click OE. Furthermore, an OE newsgroup might be a much
better place to post your question.

 

[Teneo]

its not an OE problem.

OE doesn't start, you click it and nothing, egg timer for a second and
nothing, no splash screen no window, no error message. Checked processes and
no msimn.exe running.

I would ask how can it be an OE issue when the logged on account looks
different and OE will not run when I switch an administrator account to
restricted. Switch it back to administrator, you know configuring the OS, it
works as normal.

Thank you for your contribution.

p.s yes viruses scanned for, malware, trojan, spyware scans done also

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Check the Event Logger for relevant messages (eventvwr.exe).

Temporarily promote the new account to be a member of the Administrators
group, then try again. If it works then the problem is caused by incorrect
permissions.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Hi

I put my kids logon account on restricted, from administrator, and when I
click their name and login the desktop is not quite the same ( icons not
layed out the way they have it but all nice and in lines, theirs are
splattered all over the place ) and cannot start outlook express. Switch
them back to administrator and click their name, icons all over the place
and can start outlook.

Its as if it is a different account when in restricted mode.

Any Ideas ?

Cheers

Different accounts will use physically different folder structures.

A quick check to confirm it's the same account is to place a marker text
file on the desktop for a specific account - "Kids Account.TXT". It
doesn't matter if it has any contents. Be sure it exists *only* in the
Desktop folder for that account, and NOT in the "All Users" desktop folder.

Now restart with the altered priveliges. If the file is still there, it's
the same account.

What version of XP is this? Tools available in Pro are not available in
Home. And please do be more specific - Outlook is *not* Outlook Express,
though it does rely on OE for internet mail services.

HTH
-pk

 

[Teneo]

Pegasus, is your first language English ? or are you playing with me as you
do not seem to understand my english.

This is a home pc, user is an administrator account, all work fine. I wanted
to stop kids installing software so looked at making them a restricted user
but then I hit these problems.

I think Ill goto MSDN just thought this would be a good place to start,
having this problem posted here incase anyone else gets the problem and
someone posts solution.

Thanks

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

*** See below.

Pegasus, is your first language English ? *** No
or are you playing with me *** No
as you do not seem to understand my english.

*** I do understand you, and I happen to know that the word
*** "English" should be capitalised.

This is a home pc, user is an administrator account, all work fine. I
wanted to stop kids installing software so looked at making them a
restricted user but then I hit these problems.

*** So far you don't know what's causing the problem. Temporarily
*** making the kids' account a member of the Admin group may prove
*** that you're dealing with a permission issue. Knowing this would allow
*** you to resolve the issue.
***
*** Since you seek answers here, you should allow yourself to be
*** guided (within certain limits). Snapping back at respondents
*** because you don't understand the reasons for their suggestions
*** won't get you anywhere.

 

[Teneo]

Hi Patrick

Its XP pro, all updates including SP3.... hmmmm ? I wonder...

txt file appeared, so is same account. My typo it is OE definately.

Thanks for input.

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

[Crossposted to OE General]

Please do NOT refer to Outlook Express as "Outlook".

If your kids are using their own User Profile, the functionality of OE in
your User Profile is moot.

See the section "When OE crashes or won't start" here:
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cach...ems/errors.htm#crash&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

[The page http://www.insideoe.com/problems/errors.htm is not available at
the moment so we must rely on Google's cache of the page for now.]

General OE Caveats:

- Don't use Inbox or Sent Items to archive messages. Move them to local
folders created for this purpose.

- Empty Deleted Items folder daily.

- Frequently perform a manual compact of all OE folders while "working
offline". More at
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cach.../files/maintain.htm.&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
[http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm]

- WinXP SP2 only: Do not attempt to close OE via Task Manager or shutdown
your machine if Automatic Compacting is taking place.

- Disable email scanning by your anti-virus application. It can cause
corruption (i.e., loss of messages), it provides no additional protection,
and even Symantec says it's not necessary:

<QP>
Disabling Email Scanning does not leave you unprotected against viruses that
are distributed as email attachments. Norton AntiVirus Auto-Protect scans
incoming files as they are saved to your hard drive, including email and
email attachments. Email Scanning is just another layer on top of this. To
make sure that Auto-Protect is providing the maximum protection, keep
Auto-Protect enabled and run LiveUpdate regularly to ensure that you have
the most recent virus definitions.
</QP>
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/docid/2002111812533106

 

[Teneo]

If you understood me then why say make them a member of the admin group ?

Is this something different to being an administrator ?

Yes you are correct, words derived from proper nouns should be capitalised.

 

[Teneo]

PA Bear, thank you for your contribution and link.

I do not think it is applicable fully as I do not get any of these messages
quoted also it works when they are an administrator not when I put them as a
user i.e delete member of administrator.

It must be a permission problem somewhere and will be experimenting with
other groups.

[Crossposted to OE General]

Please do NOT refer to Outlook Express as "Outlook".

If your kids are using their own User Profile, the functionality of OE in
your User Profile is moot.

See the section "When OE crashes or won't start" here:
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cach...ems/errors.htm#crash&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

[The page http://www.insideoe.com/problems/errors.htm is not available at
the moment so we must rely on Google's cache of the page for now.]

General OE Caveats:

- Don't use Inbox or Sent Items to archive messages. Move them to local
folders created for this purpose.

- Empty Deleted Items folder daily.

- Frequently perform a manual compact of all OE folders while "working
offline". More at
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cach.../files/maintain.htm.&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
[http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm]

- WinXP SP2 only: Do not attempt to close OE via Task Manager or shutdown
your machine if Automatic Compacting is taking place.

- Disable email scanning by your anti-virus application. It can cause
corruption (i.e., loss of messages), it provides no additional protection,
and even Symantec says it's not necessary:

<QP>
Disabling Email Scanning does not leave you unprotected against viruses
that are distributed as email attachments. Norton AntiVirus Auto-Protect
scans incoming files as they are saved to your hard drive, including email
and email attachments. Email Scanning is just another layer on top of
this. To make sure that Auto-Protect is providing the maximum protection,
keep Auto-Protect enabled and run LiveUpdate regularly to ensure that you
have the most recent virus definitions.
</QP>
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/docid/2002111812533106
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE, Shell/User, Security), AH-VSOP

I put my kids logon account on restricted, from administrator, and when I
click their name and login the desktop is not quite the same ( icons not
layed out the way they have it but all nice and in lines, theirs are
splattered all over the place ) and cannot start outlook express. Switch
them back to administrator and click their name, icons all over the place
and can start outlook.

Its as if it is a different account when in restricted mode.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

If you understood me then why say make them a member of the admin group ?

Is this something different to being an administrator ?

The account you created for your kids could be flawed. If it is then
including it in the Administrator's group won't fix the problem but you'll
know that the account is damaged.

 

[Teneo]

Can I explain again...

The kids were always a member of the administrator group. I took them out so
just a member of 'users' and when they login apart from icons in a different
layout OE will not start. Put them back in member of administrators and
works fine.

I put them in power users and all is ok. Icons in there normal layout for
the kids and OE starts. Its only if they are just a member of users, funny
things happen.

I just need to look up what a power user can do, looks like they can still
install software... :-(

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Can I explain again...

The kids were always a member of the administrator group. I took them out
so just a member of 'users' and when they login apart from icons in a
different layout OE will not start. Put them back in member of
administrators and works fine.

I put them in power users and all is ok. Icons in there normal layout for
the kids and OE starts. Its only if they are just a member of users, funny
things happen.

I just need to look up what a power user can do, looks like they can still
install software... :-(

I would now check the permissions of the following files:
- C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe
- The various OE .dbx files
If you run WinXP Professional then you can do this with Windows Explore. If
you run WinXP Home then you need to use cacls.exe while in Normal Mode.

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

It may be simpler just to (1) create a new User Profile for the kids (w/out
Administrative privileges), (2) copy the old User Profile's data to the new
User Profile (cf. http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811151), (3) backup &
import the old User Profile's OE data into the new User Profile's OE
identity (http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx), and then (4) Delete the old
User Profile.

More suggestions for keeping your kids (and your computer) safe are
discussed here: http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=30095