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Jordan

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Aug 24, 2002, 4:04:49 PM8/24/02
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How do I permit my kids to play games on Windows XP
without having to play them from my administrator logon?
Shouldn't they be able to play from their own logon?

Chris H.

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Aug 24, 2002, 4:24:56 PM8/24/02
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Oft-asked, often answered, Jordan. Depends on which version of Windows XP
you've got. Home is more restrictive in usage, and the individual user
accounts must be members of the Administrative Group in order to manipulate
files on the hard drive. That's the way the security is set up in XP. On
Pro, however, you can allow/deny individual file/folder access by
right-clicking the file/folder, selecting the Security and Sharing listing
and then allowing/disallowing indvidual accounts the right to write/alter
only those files. Keep in mind, in Pro you don't see this tab unless you've
disabled "Use simple file sharing (Recommended)" in Control Panel/Folder
Options/View tab. No such option is available in Home.

Newer, Windows XP-aware games have "smarter" installation routines which ask
a question like "This user only, or all users?" upon install. Older
programs which were written for Windows 98, for instance, install for
everyone because the Win9x doesn't have the security built in like Windows
XP.
--
Chris H.
Microsoft MVP - Windows XP
Associate Expert
Expert Zone - www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone

David

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Aug 25, 2002, 9:18:08 AM8/25/02
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The following works for XP HE:

To allow other users to use a program
There are a variety of ways to give users access to a program that you
install on the computer in your administrator's profile:

XP-aware programs might put a shortcut on everyone's desktop. Office 2000
did that when I installed it.
Copy a shortcut to the program into the \Desktop subfolder in the All Users
profile. That makes the icon available on everyone's desktop. But anyone
can delete it from there too.
Or copy a shortcut to the program to the \Desktop subfolder in each user's
profile. That makes the icon available to each user separately. Some
programs seem to store specific user option settings independently when the
user sets them for the program while logged on under their own account, even
though they are using a shortcut to the program that was simply cut and
pasted from another account.

I put a game CD in the drive under one of the kid's user account because it
wasn't running right. Autorun popped up a dialogue informing me that only
administrators can install software. Interestingly it gave me the option of
entering my administrator's username and password, and selecting whether to
run the program as either the limited user whose account I was using, or my
own administrator's account. What is the significance of "running the
program as the (limited user)"?

Setting Access to Software for Limited Users
The Sharing Tab
Open Windows Explorer and find the folder that contains software you want to
share with other users. Right click on the folder. Choose Sharing and
Security, then click on the Sharing tab. Then follow the directions for (a)
sharing with other users on that computer only, or (b) sharing with other
computers on the LAN.

When Legacy Software Doesn't Work Right
Software written and certified for XP should work fine. But legacy software
might not have the right features programmed in. Here are a few solutions
when legacy software and games misbehave. Share Program Folder only gives
read access to limited users. So legacy software that requires the user to
have full read/write/delete privileges won't work for limited users if the
program was installed in the protected C:\Program Files folder, because
limited users can't have "write/delete" privileges under XP Home's defaults,
only "read" privileges.

1. Compatibility Mode
It is possible to set the compatibility mode for a particular program in
case in runs better in an operating system other than XP. To do that,
right-click on the program, select Properties, then choose Compatibility.
See
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/using/howto/gethelp/appcompat.asp.

For example one of the kids' 3-yr-old Disney games installed and ran fine in
my administrator's profile, but refused to load when I clicked the program's
icon on the desktop in the kids' profiles. It worked when I right-clicked
on the program's icon on their desktop and picked Windows 95 compatibility
mode. Go figure. Who cares? -- they're happy.

2. The CACLS Command -- for misbehaving legacy software
Do not try this at home if you have any doubts about your programming
ability or knowledge of Windows. You will be messing with XP Home's
built-in security settings. I take NO RESPONSIBILITY for your use of this
technique. I got this recipe from a newsgroup thread on the Microsoft news
server.

This option allows you to remove the default security settings for limited
users for C:\Program Files or any other folder (such as a specific
application's subfolder within C:\Program Files), or a specific file on an
NTFS drive. Although XP Home users can't use a slick window or wizard to
set privileges selectively for a particular folder or file the way XP Pro
users can, there is a command in Windows XP Home that will allow you to do
it manually.

Click Start.

Click RUN and type CMD. This starts the command interpreter.

Using a standard DOS command (remember the CD.. stuff), go one level above
the directory you want to change the privileges. You cannot change the
privileges in the directory you are in.

Type CACLS xxx where xxx is the directory that you want to change the
security settings for. This will display the current privileges. Note XP
Home's default "built-in" read privileges for users.

To set USER privileges to full, do the following, type: CACLS xxx /E /T /G
USERS:F .

That sets all USERS privileges for the xxx directory and all subdirectories
to Full access.


If you do not want to set all users to full, you can substitute USERS to any
login username you would like or EVERYONE. If you choose EVERYONE, beware
since this opens it up the computer to internet hacking.

A better solution appears to be to use CACLS xxx /E /T /G USERS:C" (C for
"Change") instead of "F" for "Full". Giving limited users full control
allows them to change access permissions as well. In general, most programs
will only require change (write) access.

If you want to get the command for CACLS, type just that instead.

Here's what worked for me:

Start / Run / cmd.

cd\

cacls \pfl (pfl is the name of the folder I use for program files legacy).

That command returned a list showing the current status of the folder's
access rights.

Then I ran cacls \pfl /e /t /g users:c, which executed the CACLS routine on
every folder and file in all the subfolders under \pfl.

Then cacls \pdf returned a list showing that users rights had been changed
to "c".


This allowed Disney's 102 Dalmatians to work from the kids' user profiles.
Before doing this modification the game would load fine under my profile (I
had loaded the game from there), but would crash while loading in a kid's
profile.

DaViD

******
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with
a better mouse. - James Carswell
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Version: 2002


In news:258a01c24b87$f96f14f0$9be62ecf@tkmsftngxa03, Jordan typed:
:: How do I permit my kids to play games on Windows XP

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