Security too tight to allow certain games to run?

[Guest]

I'm sure someone has figured this out, as this is a common issue for alot of
people. Right now I have to run everybody's profiles on xp with administrator
access that wants to play games on the machine, because alot of the games
will not be recognized as being installed when using any other profile (such
as Power User, etc).

If I try to install a game using Power User, the game installs itself, but
then when I re-run the cd, the game wants to re-install itself again. If I
say no to re-install it... change my profile to an admin profile, and
re-launch the cd... the cd now detects the game as being installed and gives
me the option to play it (which then loads the game and everything works).

Anyone aware what registry entries, etc might need to be modified to be read
/ written to by power users? I have the games installed onto a FAT32
partition, so NTFS settings arn't an issue on that partition. I do have my
C:\ setup for NTFS though. Any help on this would be great so I can lower the
other profiles down to Powerusers to help secure the pc against threats
through an admin account.

 

[Richard Urban]

Right click on game icon. Go to "run as". Chose an account with
administrator privileges.

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

"Shaun @ http://twinworld.ca/"

 

[Guest]

I'm aware of that option, but I'd rather not have to do that for every
program that doesn't work correctly. I'm sure there's a registry tree or
something that just needs the permissions modified to include read/write from
powerusers and that should fix the issue.

 

[Juergen Heinzl]

I'm sure someone has figured this out, as this is a common issue for alot of
people. Right now I have to run everybody's profiles on xp with administrator
access that wants to play games on the machine, because alot of the games
will not be recognized as being installed when using any other profile (such
as Power User, etc).

[-]
A common problem with software not designed for Windows 2000 at least.

Anyone aware what registry entries, etc might need to be modified to be read
/ written to by power users? I have the games installed onto a FAT32
partition, so NTFS settings arn't an issue on that partition. I do have my
C:\ setup for NTFS though. Any help on this would be great so I can lower the
other profiles down to Powerusers to help secure the pc against threats
through an admin account.

[-]
See http://www.sysinternals.com/ and regmon may help to find out which registry
entries an application tries to read / write and, at least with XP Pro, it is possible
to change the permissions of registry entries, too.

It's surely a bit of a pain, yet you'd add a group "Games" for instance, add the
people who play games to that group and then set the relevant permissions such
"Games" can read or write or both the relevant entries or subtree of the registry.

Hope it helps,
Juergen

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

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.

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


"Shaun @ http://twinworld.ca/"

 

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

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."

In addition to that excellent advice quoted above, some folks have found
that installing the game on an account and running it once, when the
account has admin privilege, then changing the permissions as I
suggested above, if necessary, and finally setting the account to
limited, will fix recalcitrant games.

I have found some apps that sprinkle user-writeable files around
%windir%. These software designers should be shot and their game CDs
should be burned, but there might be advice on the vendor web site on
what files need to have their permissions changed in %windir% or
%windir%\system32 along the lines cited above.