XP limited account and program access

[Cotton]

I have Quicken installed on an XP Home machine. I have posted this question
on the quicken newsgroup and they suggested it was an XP issue, rather than
quicken, so I'm asking it here as well.

Quicken installs to /Program Files/Quickenw and it also locates its' data
files there. As the person who installed it, I can access it from my "Admin"
account, but it stubbornly refuses to load when my wife tries to open the
program from her limited account. Is there a way to correct this and allow
her to run the program?

Cotton

 

[Malke]

I have Quicken installed on an XP Home machine. I have posted this
question on the quicken newsgroup and they suggested it was an XP
issue, rather than quicken, so I'm asking it here as well.

Quicken installs to /Program Files/Quickenw and it also locates its'
data files there. As the person who installed it, I can access it from
my "Admin" account, but it stubbornly refuses to load when my wife
tries to open the program from her limited account. Is there a way to
correct this and allow her to run the program?

Actually, this *is* a Quicken issue, especially if the Quicken you have
is an older version. Quite a few older programs were written for
operating systems like Win9x which did not support permissions or real
multiple accounts (profiles are not the same). These programs expect to
be able to write to areas of the installation that are not permitted to
users with limited accounts. You could have your wife start Quicken
with administrative rights by using Runas. Other than that, if you
aren't using a current version of Quicken, check with Intuit and see if
the newer versions are written better.

Malke

 

[Cotton]

The version is Quicken 2003, so it's not really all that old. Tried the Run
as.. option, but that didn't work either.

Thanks for your help.

Cotton

 

[Vagabond Software]

Try right-clicking the folder containing the Quicken file you want your wife
to use. Select the Advanced button on the Security tab of the Properties
Dialog.

Explicity add your wife's account and make sure the "Inherit permissions..."
check-box is checked. That should do the trick.

If that does not solve the problem, go back to the Advanced Security
Settings dialog and select the Effective Permissions tab. Click the Select
button, then the Advanced button, then the Find Now button. Add your wife's
account and just give her Full Control, Take Ownership... basically turn it
all on for that folder.

I hope that solves the problem.

- carl

 

[CS]

I have Quicken installed on an XP Home machine. I have posted this question
on the quicken newsgroup and they suggested it was an XP issue, rather than
quicken, so I'm asking it here as well.

Quicken installs to /Program Files/Quickenw and it also locates its' data
files there. As the person who installed it, I can access it from my "Admin"
account, but it stubbornly refuses to load when my wife tries to open the
program from her limited account. Is there a way to correct this and allow
her to run the program?

Cotton

You can try moving the shortcut or copying it from your account to the
"all users account" or your wife's account. Sometimes this will work.
However, knowing Intuit and their style of programming, you'll
probably have to re-install but this time for "all users".

 

[Cotton]

I'm a bit confused. When I right-click on the /Program Files/Quickenw
folder, I have three tabs showing - General, sharing, and Customize. I have
no Security tab, and therefore no Advanced button.

Are you referring to characteristics of XP Pro?

BTW, I found that if I choose to share the entire folder across the network,
I can run it from my wife's account, but then all the other users on the
network can access it as well. Could it simply need to be re-installed to a
(for example)/Shared Documents/Quickenw folder?

Cotton

 

[Vagabond Software]

My apologies, I was referring to Win XP Pro.

There are still a few options available to you for permissions on Win XP
Home, cacls and Safe Mode. The easiest wpi;d be tp boot into Safe Mode (F8,
I think) and then right-click your Quicken folder and select the Properties
dialog. You should now have a Security tab on your dialog and be able to
configure permissions as I described earlier.

Let me know how that goes...

- carl

 

[Cotton]

I just tried to boot into safe mode to follow your suggestions and I got a
message on the monitor "Out of Range" and the machine locked up. Now I have
to investigate this error. The fun continues...

Cotton

 

[Vagabond Software]

The other option for XP Home is to open up a Command Shell, change to the
directory you're trying to configure permissions for and type 'cacls' at the
prompt.

You'll see the instructions for using it.

I would probably start with something like this:

<prompt> cacls /T /E /G <yourwife>:F

I wonder if this will actually do the trick? Some older programs actually
want the user to be able to take ownership...

Anyway, give it a try if you can't get the Safe Mode option working.

- carl