Game Apps Under XP Non-Admin Acct

[Steve Young]

I have just installed XP-Home and have several older kids
games that require installation and then when the games
are run a CD has to be in the drive. I have successfully
done the installations and can execute the programs from
my Administrator's account but the games will not launch
from other (non-administrator) accounts ... in spite of
the fact that icons for these programs appear on the
desktop. I thought that all programs installed were
accessible to all users. Is this not true?

Thanks.

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Steve,

No, it's not always true, sometimes the programs have to be installed under
each account for which you wisk to have access. This is especially true with
older software that is not fully "user aware". To install under a limited
account, right-click the setup file and choose "run as", then enter an Admin
username and password. This can help as well:

Some Programs Do Not Work If You Log On from Limited Account [Q307091]
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307091

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Win98 Help - www.rickrogers.org

"Steve Young" > wrote in message
...
> I have just installed XP-Home and have several older kids
> games that require installation and then when the games
> are run a CD has to be in the drive. I have successfully
> done the installations and can execute the programs from
> my Administrator's account but the games will not launch
> from other (non-administrator) accounts ... in spite of
> the fact that icons for these programs appear on the
> desktop. I thought that all programs installed were
> accessible to all users. Is this not true?
>
> Thanks.
>
>

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

Some installers require users to be able to write to the Program Files
and the HKLM system registry. This was OK in win9x, but is not allowed
in XP.

I recommend you boot to safe mode, logon as Administrator with no
password, and then use the Security tab which you can get by a
right-click on any folder.

Create a C:\Games folder. Right-click it and select the Security tab.
Click the Advanced button and then uncheck the "Inherit from parent ..."
checkbox. Click Apply. In answer to the question, select "Copy". Click
OK to return to the main security tab.

Look in the Group or user names box and verify or add:

Administrators: Allow Full Control
CREATOR OWNER: special
Power Users: Allow Modify
SYSTEM: Allow Full Control
Users: Allow Modify

You should remove the individual account that created the folder.

To set permissions for the CREATOR OWNER, click the Advanced button,
select CREATOR OWNER and Edit. Select "Subfolders and files only" and
then check "Allow Full Control".

If you install your games in this Games folder instead of Program Files,
you should be able to run many more of your games from limited accounts.
Creating this separate folder protects your applications installed in
Program Files, like Internet Explorer, Outlook Express and Office.

You may still run afoul of HKLM registry keys that are blocked from
limited accounts. To fix this, you have to edit the registry and give
Users full permission on the HKLM\Software key that is installed by that
particular game. Probably best to post back if you have problems with a
particular game.

--
Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows



"Steve Young" > wrote in
message ...

> I have just installed XP-Home and have several older kids
> games that require installation and then when the games
> are run a CD has to be in the drive. I have successfully
> done the installations and can execute the programs from
> my Administrator's account but the games will not launch
> from other (non-administrator) accounts ... in spite of
> the fact that icons for these programs appear on the
> desktop. I thought that all programs installed were
> accessible to all users. Is this not true?