What good are XP Pro User Accounts?

G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

My daughter has a game, Sims 2, that requires her to run it from my admin
account. What good does it do to have Win XP Pro and require all users to
have admin rights to run the software you want?

Is it possible to create an account that allows my daughter to play this
game without gaining full system access? She's not old enough to know what
not to do.

Can I create an admin account that may not access the internet so she can
run the game without me worrying about her installing additional features, ie
trojans, viruses, and spyware? I can't rely on her to unplug eithernet, nor
block internet traffic. She does know how to turn it on, log in, and run her
game though.

We're running XP Pro, SP2, with EZ Firewall, EZ Antivirus, Roadrunner,
adaware, and spybot. (And we're still vulnerable).
 

Malke

Distinguished
Apr 6, 2004
3,000
0
20,780
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

Kurt M. Sanger wrote:

> My daughter has a game, Sims 2, that requires her to run it from my
> admin
> account. What good does it do to have Win XP Pro and require all
> users to have admin rights to run the software you want?
>
> Is it possible to create an account that allows my daughter to play
> this
> game without gaining full system access? She's not old enough to know
> what not to do.
>
> Can I create an admin account that may not access the internet so she
> can run the game without me worrying about her installing additional
> features, ie
> trojans, viruses, and spyware? I can't rely on her to unplug
> eithernet, nor
> block internet traffic. She does know how to turn it on, log in, and
> run her game though.
>
> We're running XP Pro, SP2, with EZ Firewall, EZ Antivirus, Roadrunner,
> adaware, and spybot. (And we're still vulnerable).

There is a patch for The Sims that will allow it to run in a Limited
account. Go to the game's website.

Malke
--
MS MVP - Windows Shell/User
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

Hi kurt. had same problem with sim2 please goto the sims2 web site i think
its eagames.com they have a fix for your exact problem. you will have to
downlaod a patch to make the game work under all profiles hope this helps it
worked great for me. and you don't have to do anything to your user accounts
for it to work.

"Kurt M. Sanger" wrote:

> My daughter has a game, Sims 2, that requires her to run it from my admin
> account. What good does it do to have Win XP Pro and require all users to
> have admin rights to run the software you want?
>
> Is it possible to create an account that allows my daughter to play this
> game without gaining full system access? She's not old enough to know what
> not to do.
>
> Can I create an admin account that may not access the internet so she can
> run the game without me worrying about her installing additional features, ie
> trojans, viruses, and spyware? I can't rely on her to unplug eithernet, nor
> block internet traffic. She does know how to turn it on, log in, and run her
> game though.
>
> We're running XP Pro, SP2, with EZ Firewall, EZ Antivirus, Roadrunner,
> adaware, and spybot. (And we're still vulnerable).
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

Kurt M. Sanger wrote:
> My daughter has a game, Sims 2, that requires her to run it from my admin
> account. What good does it do to have Win XP Pro and require all users to
> have admin rights to run the software you want?
>


Ask the makers of the game that hasn't been properly designed to run on
a multi-user OS.


> Is it possible to create an account that allows my daughter to play this
> game without gaining full system access? She's not old enough to know what
> not to do.
>


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.

For some obscure reason, game developers in particular seem to not
understand WinXP's file security paradigm, and require even limited
users to have unnecessarily high privileges to protected systems
folders. For example, saved games are often stored in a sub-folder
under the game's folder within C:\Program Files - a place where no
inexperienced or limited user should have write permissions.

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."


> Can I create an admin account that may not access the internet so she can
> run the game without me worrying about her installing additional features, ie
> trojans, viruses, and spyware?


No, not really. An admin account is, by definition, "omnipotent." The
only limit to its "power" over everything on the computer is the
knowledge of the user.





--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

Thanks; I've updates SIMS 2 with a new patch.

"Malke" wrote:

> Kurt M. Sanger wrote:
>
> > My daughter has a game, Sims 2, that requires her to run it from my
> > admin
> > account. What good does it do to have Win XP Pro and require all
> > users to have admin rights to run the software you want?
> >
> > Is it possible to create an account that allows my daughter to play
> > this
> > game without gaining full system access? She's not old enough to know
> > what not to do.
> >
> > Can I create an admin account that may not access the internet so she
> > can run the game without me worrying about her installing additional
> > features, ie
> > trojans, viruses, and spyware? I can't rely on her to unplug
> > eithernet, nor
> > block internet traffic. She does know how to turn it on, log in, and
> > run her game though.
> >
> > We're running XP Pro, SP2, with EZ Firewall, EZ Antivirus, Roadrunner,
> > adaware, and spybot. (And we're still vulnerable).
>
> There is a patch for The Sims that will allow it to run in a Limited
> account. Go to the game's website.
>
> Malke
> --
> MS MVP - Windows Shell/User
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> "Don't Panic!"
>