Running Windows Without Administrator Privs? 239
javacowboy asks: "For a while now, I've been advising friends who run Windows to try running as a regular user, as opposed to running as administrator, which is the default setting. However, I switched to Mac a year and a half ago and I haven't run Windows since, so I'm probably not the best person to be giving this advice. Still, on a philosophical level, *trying* to run Windows as a non-admin, given the prevalence of viruses, worms, trojans, and spy-ware, seems to make sense. Have any of you tried to run Windows as a non-admin, and how did it work out for you? Are there certain tasks or certain software you need to be admin to run? How realistic is it to expect a Windows user to run their OS as non-root?"
one experience (Score:5, Informative)
A friend's computer shared by the entire household was unendingly compromised. We restored XP many times from scratch but the result was always the same, within a month XP was toes up again.
We did manage to trace the culprit pretty certainly to one of the kid's AOL sessions. No emphasis and teaching was enough to stop a trusting click to wreak trojan horse havoc. (I don't blame the kid, she was using in good faith and only talked to friends, and only clicked when she was assured they were "being good". Unfortunately, in the world of XP running with admin privelege, this is not enough.)
We finally bought a separate computer with discrete accounts, and only one had admin access. The kids' accounts were non-admin. This new machine remains uncompromised, but with a price.
The non-admin accounts, while unable as expected to install software, have random and mysterious failures. I've been able to track some down to exactly what I (and most) feared -- applications which expect to have admin access. Not one example was legitimate in the sense the failure point was performing work requiring admin access, it was just presumptive development by the application. (Interestingly, one of the applications that works fine in admin access but not in non-admin access is Windows Media Player 10.)
Unfortunately this turns out to be a common symptom running non-admin in XP. Lots of applications will work fine. Lots won't.
The machine remains partitioned as described, but the ultimate result has been the kids gravitating back to the unprotected computer for unfettered access. I expect that machine will continue to need its periodic re-imaging.
These problems in XP aren't rare and are artifacts of an infrastructure with security tacked on in ugly layers again and again, all as afterthoughts. I hope Vista proves better at this, but wonder how many applications will continue as problematic because of a murky and muddled and shifting security architecture.
For the record, I'm simply amazed Microsoft has gotten away with this for so long... it's ample empirical evidence more deals on shop architectures are being made on the golf course and not around the white boards.
And, also for the record, Microsoft has the money and power to fix this once and for all. I'm sure some will defend Microsoft's incremental work on this, but for too many years my observation has been Micosoft using their money to buy additional fingers with which they point at others to blame rather than work to solve comprehensively the security and system integrity problems.
- Bottom line:
I still recommend PC owners create separate non-admin accounts with only one admin account. Applications that won't/can't play nice I recommend they uninstall and ask for their money back. This isn't optimal, but it keeps the machine healthy longer.Sigh.
Re:one experience (Score:3, Informative)
The main culprit is almost always always programs trying to store data in their installation folder rather than th
Re:one experience (Score:3, Interesting)
Vista's approach, while not perfect does redress problem somewhat. If an app needs admin, Vista pops up a dialog asking for User/Pass of an admin account (a bit like an automatic SU) - I'm not sure if Vista knows each app and what it n
Re:one experience (Score:2)
It *is* in XP; at least in PRO. I know it works when one is connected to a domain, however, I've never run my own machine as anything but "admin", so I don't know if it does the same when not connected to a domain.
If anything, that functionality is directly from XP (only possibly modified to work when not connected to a domain, if in fact it works only when connected to a domain).
Re:one experience (Score:4, Informative)
In Windows you can use the runas command similar to su to give elevated privs to individual apps. You can also use a switch to cache credentials (like chown +x root) that the admin can use to give users the ability to work with awkward apps so it's not really a big deal for the odd application if the machine is set up correctly.
Re:one experience (Score:2)
Re:one experience (Score:2, Insightful)
Having a whole heap of programs looking in different places for updates is horrendously stupid. The OS should provide a centralised place from which you can update the entire OS and all your apps in a centralised and consistent manner.
Re:one experience (Score:2)
Where is yum for Windows!
Re:one experience (Score:2)
We'd have a field day if they let Commander_Keen_2.1 go live and it was really a goat porn trojan.
Re:one experience (Score:2)
Easyshare sounds like a crappy piece of software so in my situation I'd simply find an alternative
Re:one experience (Score:2, Interesting)
Well, can't blame British Rail -- I mean, Microsoft -- for that! (And I try to blame nearly everything on Microsoft.) I'd like to say it's people who accept software that requires admin access to run, but unfortunately, it's just like with the unfair software licenses that are so common -- you feel like you have no choice. "What do you mean, I spent $500 for this digital camera, and I c
Re:one experience (Score:3, Interesting)
Winamp was annoying, but I suppose that I could ask for a refund of every penny that I paid for it, which was nothing.
Logitech, on the other hand, was more annoying. I paid good money for that product, and a company that size should check for this sort of stuff. The problem is that
Answers to your thoughts: (Score:3, Insightful)
2) There are other programs besides the Logitech tool that can take pictures with your camera. Try any other PTP supporting application (like the Windows XP Camera wizard). In general bundled software that comes with any hardware is likely to be crap... not just Logitechs'.
Re:one experience (Score:3, Informative)
In many unixes nowadays you can use capabilities, to give a program that normally would require root, whatever access it requires without giving it full root (such as raw socket cap
Re:one experience (Score:2)
Re:one experience (Score:3, Funny)
Re:one experience (Score:3, Informative)
You should be capturing packets with tcpdump (as root), and opening the file it creates with ethereal as an unpriviliged user.
Re:one experience (Score:3, Interesting)
While there is some truth to this, it's not the case that, say, "larn" or "hack" needs root access.
But it is the case that many (all of the ones I've tried) of those Disney game programs require administrator privileges. These are basically flash games, and they're being sold for children to use. But they simply will not operate without administrator privileges.
(This isn't
Re:one experience (Score:2)
Uh, no? I generate the dumps with tcpdump and load them into a ethereal running as non-root all the time.
Which I think is the critical difference. Microsoft Outlook has _zero_ to do with system administration. Palm Desktop has _zero_ to do with system administration.
In Windows you can use the runas command similar to su to give elevated privs to individual apps.
Well, you might say that
Re:one experience (Score:2)
Uh, no? I generate the dumps with tcpdump and load them into a ethereal running as non-root all the time.
I, like many people, like capturing with ethereal rather than tcpdump because it's more convenient. To do this it asks for the root password.
Which I think is the critical difference. Microsoft Outlook has _zero_ to do with system administration. Palm Desktop has _zero_ to d
Cool Hack: (Score:4, Informative)
Give this user permissions to do whatever it is that the unprivledged account can't deal with (modifying its own Program Files directory, whatever). Make it have no password and deny interactive logon, but allow batch logon.
Now, using "su" from sysinternals, create a shortcut that runs su with the options to log on as "Granny2" using a "batch" logon, and have it run the nasty application.
Here's the key. PUT THE LINK IN HER PERSONAL START MENU/DESKTOP. Not in the All Users desktop. These are special shortcuts for this ONE USER.
To complete the tour de force, go into the registry under the Granny2 user find:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr
Change Personal, Desktop, etc. to MIMIC the Granny user. Then give Granny2 R/W privs on the Granny profile.
Boom! Smooth, seamless access to all misbehaving apps. I did this to get Turbotax and Quicken to run on a family PC under multiple accounts with unprivledge users who know nothing about technology or to remember passwords.
Worked like a charm.
Re:one experience (Score:3, Insightful)
What problems did you have ? Because while I don't use WMP frequently, I've never had a problem using it in a non-admin account.
These problems in XP aren't rare and are artifacts of an infrastructure with security tacked on in ugly layers again and again, all as afterthoughts.
The security infrastructure in NT (ie: XP) has been there from the get-go and certainly wasn't "tacked
Re:one experience (Score:3, Insightful)
When merging the 2 together, they decided that a consistent (ish) interface was more important than security, so the underlying security features got bypassed or papered over.
Re:one experience (Score:2)
Probably more of a case of "backwards compatibility" (something MS have shot themselves in the foot to preserve before), but yes. NT has a completely capable security system — a modern and functional one — but as you point out it is quite simply not used on the default home installation.
It's a bit of a sad situation really. The biggest problem is applications which aren't written to work in unprivileged user mode, though, and hopefully those will be largely fixed after Vista is released. No gua
Re:one experience (Score:2)
However, after a fresh install (still non-admin), it was working fine.
The concept of UserRights made its way very slowly in Windows development expecially for cross-platform applications designed to run on WinMe and Win2000.
And the Windows API didn't made thinks easy, with some duplicated functions or parameters ignored on Win9x,
Re:one experience (Score:2)
Microsoft have been telling developers to write LUA-friendly applications since about 1998.
And the Windows API didn't made thinks easy, with some duplicated functions or parameters ignored on Win9x, ... Even if the security design of WinNT was ok Microsoft could have done something to ease the pain of cross-platform ( Win9x-WinNT ) development ! Like I
MS deserves almost all of the blame (Score:2)
Certainly this problem happens because of lazy developers, but the market forces at work imply that developers would do the least work necessary to market their program to the majority of users.
Furthermore, no developer has central control over "all programs" - the direction of development of "all programs" rests squarely with MS. We aren't talking about a minimal set of back actors here.
So the fault lies with M$ for shipping an OS t
Re:one experience (Score:2, Insightful)
Seems lik there are a couple items they could do to start off:
Ok... we're getting closer to my original point... (Score:3, Insightful)
If Intuit doesn't want to have to deal with Grampa Bob and 50,000,000 of his closest friends wh
Give the kids a VM (Score:2, Interesting)
Back it up when it's in a pristine state, then anytime they mess it up, delete it, restore from the backup.
Windows Media Player works fine (Score:2)
Re:one experience (Score:2)
It's the fault of application developers that can't or won't fix their applications to behave, or that aren't installed correctly.
Users install the app, and it doesn't work. They call the vendor. The vendor wants to get them off the phone because phone support costs money. Running the app as Administrator is a quick and easy fix that only takes a minute, so that's what they tell them to do.
It's all a legacy of the DOS mindset, where any program could do anyth
Re:one experience (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:one experience (Score:2)
Re:one experience (Score:2, Insightful)
Aaron Margolis (Score:5, Informative)
Check it out at http://blogs.msdn.com/aaron_margosis/ [msdn.com]
Re:Aaron Margolis (Score:2)
I run as non-admin (Score:2)
I have always used the NT, 2k and XP as non-admin. It works somewhat in my experience, but not as good as in Mac OS X.
Microsoft Office works as it should and with Visual Studio you would maybe want to add your user to the Debuggers-group (or something like that). Otherwise Microsoft's own apps works in my experience.
To me most problems occur with large (non-Micorsoft) commercial applications, especially games. You have to hack around to get it running as non-admin, and when you finally get it running
Some advice (Score:5, Informative)
Registry permissions can be set using reged32.
Installers are also a problem. Since Windows program like making a mess (i.e. putting DLL files in the system and system32 directories), you usually need to run then as Administrator. The "Run As..." menu item can be used to elevate priviliges for a single program. This appears in context (right-click) menus by default, unless you're in the Control Panel. In that case, hold down shift when right-clicking.
Windows Explorer can be started as a different user, if you set the option to run Explorer Windows in a separate thread. This option needs to be turned on for the user you're changing to, not for the current user. You can find this option in Control Panel (Classic View), Folder Options..., View tab, Launch folder windows in a separate process.
Here's a few sources to consult:
I'm sure I missed some things, but other posters will point them out.
Another good site (Score:2)
Thought you probably would have found that via Aaron Morgosis' Blog.
I have my wife setup as non-admin, and she doesn't really notice. I run as non-admin at home and its fine. Sometimes it gets messy during development when you need to attach a debugger to a system process (IIS), but there are ways to resolve each issue, and they are documented at the above sites.
Re:Some advice (Score:2)
Actually yeah, the BEST way to find out how to get an application to install/run with reduced privileges is to instead search for how to install it in a Domain. The procedures are the same, but in the example of Palm Desktop- one will tell you how to do it and the other will not.
I could hear it now.... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I could hear it now.... (Score:3, Funny)
I'm succeeding but there are many pitfalls (Score:2)
A few months ago, Windows Update somehow stopped working from Run As. Annoying, but you only need to run it once a month.
MOD PARENT UP (Score:2)
Not being able to run WindowsUpdate is a major impediment to people being able to run windows with non-admin accounts. This is one of the reasons why I'm happy I switched to a Mac Mini last year, and why I still loath having to support my wife's Windows laptop.
If there's some way to do it, please let me know - I haven't had time to read through the blog linked in other posts.
Doing it right now (Score:2)
Re:Doing it right now (Score:2)
Unfortunately, games mostly spoil this situation. Some state that they need admin on the packaging but others just assume that you're running a PC freshly delivered from the local store running XP Home with full rights. This is even worse when our local software out
These days, most things Just Work (Score:2)
I work in a corporate-type environment where almost no one has admin on their machine. Folks here run all sorts of applications, burn CDs, etc with no problems. In fact, we deny everyone write access to the C partition (where the OS and p
The info is out there...if you can read German ;-) (Score:3, Informative)
Learning German is probably an effort on par with trying to replicate their years of work and experience. ;-)
There was even a database detailing which application caused how much trouble without administrator privileges [archive.org].
However, in all of this the question comes to mind whether the best way to obtain as much as possible of Mac-like security and ease of use on PCs wouldn't simply be installing Linux in the first place.
I always run as a user (Score:2)
One thing not many people mention; to get the best out of running as a user you should change the permissions on the drive Windows NT is installed on. On XP users can create folders outside of their home folder by default, but it'll keep things much cleaner a
Re:I always run as a user (Score:2)
Forget it. (Score:2, Insightful)
a) You are in a company, working with a professional IT environment, with a helpdesk and administrators with knowledge
b) You are an administrator with knowledge
Running windows as non-admin is not for the faint of heart. While most Microsoft software runs flawlessly as non-admin, there is a large percentage of third party software which does not. This can be fixed in most circumstances, changing permissions in C:\Program Files\, the HKLM Key
Re:Forget it. (Score:4, Insightful)
It seems like Windows was set up so that the Administrator uses the Administrator account all the time, and if it's your personal computer, that's you - limited users are for when someone else is the Administrator.
It works (Score:2)
Personally, I think running as non-admin is a good idea, but I don't really like the way it's implemented in Windows, so I don'
Truthfully? (Score:2)
About two months ago I tried it. It was absolutely fucking horrible, and just a colossal pain in the ass. It may just be because I'm constantly installing/uninstalling both software and hardware, tweaking the system settings, etc. but it was flat out unusable. I've managed to avoid getting any virii, trojans, rootkits, etc. for the past decade - but even if I were to have to do a completely random system wipe once a year (in additio
Re:Truthfully? (Score:2)
Wow... you consider reformatting 4 times per year, on purpose, acceptable, yet attempting to run as non-admin in Windows is too much hassle? Now that's saying something. Just attempting to install Windows once and get it to a usable state would be enough
As usual, the answer is: it depends. (Score:2)
My user account (SID) on my x64 windows machine at home isn't in the administrator group, and I occasionally run into problems. Most software works ok, though.
The typical problem is that the programmer or software architect didn't account for user-specific config settings. Just like on unix, Windows lets you keep user-specific stuff in the user's profile. However, Windows has the ability to synchronize the user's profile across the network -- including the HKEY_CURRENT_USER subkey from the registry, s
Re:As usual, the answer is: it depends. (Score:2)
Er, yes it is. You drop a config file into %USERPROFILE% or write it to HKEY_CURRENT_USER (where you should be putting it *anyway*) and the system takes care of the rest.
By the way, the poster's use of the word "root" is a little misleading. In Windows terms, "root" is really the LocalSystem
Not hard to do on a home computer... (Score:2, Interesting)
When I had to clean the malware off, I noticed that there were no service packs, and the Norton had not been updated in over a year and a half.
I backed up all the pictures and work documents, then installed a legal version of Win2K Pro, Anti Vir, Clamwin, Firefox, spybot and Ad Aware.
The hardest part was convincing her to use her newly
Re:Not hard to do on a home computer... (Score:2, Interesting)
You'd better check the logs and make sure your girlfriend doesn't read Slashdot. Wait, what am I saying? Don't worry about it.
Re:Not hard to do on a home computer... (Score:4, Insightful)
works great (Score:2)
Re:works great (Score:2)
http://gallery.ev6.net/v/stupid-doze-crap.png.html [ev6.net]
Even tho your logged in as non admin, and dont have privilege to reboot the machine, it pops up the dialog telling you about new updates and asking if you want to reboot. Only you can't reboot, nor can you cancel the dialog, it will sit there until someone reboots for you.
It just shows how the whole interface was never designed with multiple users in mind, it's one big nasty kludge.
Read slashdot (Score:2)
There have been a number of stories about it in the last few years even interviews with MS people in wich this was adressed.
Basically, it can be done but not easily and not without a lot of hassle. MS knows this and is supposed to be working very hard on this. Vista is supposed to cure it all.
So for now it seems you are condemned to run with higher privileges then nece
Re:Read slashdot (Score:2)
Didn't they say that about 2000? And before that, didn't they say that about NT? Does it really take more than 20 years and 7 major versions to fix a broken model? Ouch.
Yeah well (Score:2)
4000 users say you are wrng (Score:2)
It _can_ be done, but I have stopped suggesting it (Score:2)
I've run my own machine (when I ran windows) and machines which I have had to support as non-admin. It is completely doable if the workstations have to run only a few programs and/or there are IT people backing up the attempt. Many programs will be
Re:It _can_ be done, but I have stopped suggesting (Score:2)
From a technical perspective, Windows doesn't have any equivalent to 'root'.
Entirely doable... (Score:2)
My recommendation is setup shortcuts that use runas.exe whenever you have something that needs admin access. Use
Re:Entirely doable... (Score:2)
People rag on about how difficult they perceive linux to be, but in terms of running the system safely today's linux distributions are much easier than windows.
On the other hand you have OSX, which is about the only OS that really is "Ready for the desktop".
No sudo (Score:2)
Troublesome (Score:2)
Other thing to consider would be to run the browser as other (totally unprivileged) user, I guess the next incarnation of Windows has something like this onboard.
A lot of games don't work - but less virii (Score:2)
Recent games (the last couple of years) are behaving better eg World's of Warcraft runs as a regular user but previous Blizzard games didn't. The Sims2 runs as a user but puts multi 100 megs of files in each user
I've been doing it for for ~10 years now (Score:2)
Back then it was a bit of a pain, as some maintenace tasks actually required logging in as an Administrator and didn't work with "Run As". Plus, "Run As" required you to actually download and install a PowerToy, rather than being part of the context menu by default.
Nowadays pretty much everything necessary is doable via "Run As" - and the few things that aren't XP users can simply use Fast User Switching to bounce into an Adminstrator account (I use Win2k3 on my d
Certain apps have problems (Score:2)
Makes sense? No it doesn't. (Score:2)
What's the common thread for all of those? Right, you as the non-admin user still have full privs over them.
Re:Makes sense? No it doesn't. (Score:2)
If a machine has multiple users, I don't want other stupid users getting owned and exposing MY details, what they do with their own files is their own problem however.
Also when your the one expected to fix someone'e totally screwed machine, it's better if the system as a whole won't get shafted, it's much easier to reset their user account to defaults.
And finally if something is running in userspace it can't really hide itself, it can't hook into t
Pretty standard in corporations (Score:2)
Once you make users non-priveliged, a *HUGE* number of support problems go away. Before I handed off desktop support to an assistant, people would often come to me and ask for admin privs. Everyone who asks for admin priveliges will swear upon everything that they find holy that *they* would never cause any problems. Like prisoners, they're *all* innocent. And yet, without
Re:Pretty standard in corporations (Score:2)
XP as non-admin is fine, it's the apps (Score:2)
The most common problems I encounter are Registry-related, apps trying to open HKLM keys in read/write mode for example, and are primarily due to the software developers running as admin on their own machines and never testing with lesser-privilaged accounts.
I usually contact the developers wit
Registry Keys (Score:2)
The biggest problem I had with this was when I ran WinNT (and I'm assuming it still holds for later versions). Certain programs would require administrator access to install correctly, so I'd log in as administrator to do the install. Once I was back on my non-admin account, the security permissions in the registry (for keys created by the install) didn't allow me to access those keys--and the program wouldn't run correctly.
If I recall correctly, XP has a feature whereby you can allow a program to run as
write access to system dirs (Score:2)
Works For Me (Score:2)
Personally, I would like to see more Windows software support drag and drop installation, like most Mac OS X software does.
Silly (Score:2)
There are a lot of advantages that Linux and Mac security have over Windows. It's sad that anyone thinks that their most useless
Re:Silly (Score:2)
Every one I've ever encountered are the *Monkey Noise* "Ooh lookie! BugTraq sent out a new 'sploit!! Oooh oooh!!" *Monkey Noise* *Monkey Noise* types.
They always say 'sploit cause they think it makes them sound cool.
One of them grew a big orange beard because he doesn't have a chin.
Re:Silly (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Some things just require Admin (Score:2)
We always create the first account with the name "Install Software" and password protect it. That way other family members, children, etc. can't get in there and cause problems.
I always try to make them do everything they would normally do while I am there to assist with creating the limited accounts, password protecting any that need it, and setting up software. Invariably within a day or two I get a phone call/visit due to some
Some tips... (Score:4, Informative)
1) Download CPAU [joeware.net], which works somewhat like RunAs but will let you create "job" files so you don't need to type a password each time.
2) Make three accounts, a "guest" (don't use the built-in guest account for this) user, a "poweruser", and an "admin" (don't use the built-in admin account for this). For the rest of this post, I'll call your real account "fred", the lower-permissioned account "barney", and the higher-permissioned account "gazoo".
3) Set the root of all drives to explicitly "deny" all permissions to "gazoo". This wouldn't even slow down an interactive attacker, but few hostile programs expect to need to take ownership and change permissions from an account already having admin privs.
4) Give "fred" write permission on "Documents and Settings\barney". Give "barney" read permission on "Documents and Settings\fred". Give "fred" read permission on "Documents and Settings\gazoo". That alone will solve 99% of permission problems you'll have.
5) Use CPAU to set up job files to run all your networking programs (browser, email, IM, etc) as "barney". Do the same for all programs that legitimately need admin access (many CD/DVD rippers, for example) to run as "gazoo".
6) To install most software (even well-behaved software that doesn't require admin to run), log in as admin (the real one, not "gazoo") and create its directory under Program Files, giving "fred" (or "barney" if it will run with reduced permissions) write permission to that dir. Then, install it while logged in as "fred" (or, again, as "barney" if applicable). Also, some pesky software will work best if you install it first as the user it will run as, and then as "fred". Firefox and Thunderbird fall into this category, because of the way they handle user profiles (Using the highly-recommended "Portable [portableapps.com]" versions of both will completely avoid this problem, btw).
The above will take care of most common problems you might have. Other problems will still pop up, however.
For example, good luck printing from your web browser - you can use Microsoft's TweakUI to edit the relevant ACLs, but that seems like about a 50/50 shot of working. I curently have two machines at home set up more-or-less as described above, and basically identical. One of them can print from "barney" and one can't. Wierd.
Also, get used to using UNC names. Mapped drives, even if mapped under all three accounts, will not show up for programs running as anyone but the currently logged-in user.
And some "experts" wonder why so many Windows users still run as admin.
Re:Some tips... (Score:2)
But HELL NO, I'm not going through that many contortions just to use the machine. No way.
some tips (Score:2)
Generally;
Running as a User is fine - unless you're going to need to access any control panels, or mess with system areas of the file-system.
But this alone is not really enough to provide real security. You've got to also set some restrictions on file-system and registry permissions. An Excellent guide can be obtained as a pdf file from the NSA.gov website: Guide to
Windows doesn't Just Work (Score:2)
Re:The Problem is with Clueless Users (Score:5, Funny)
What is it exactly that the 'clueless morons' do that you don't?
Re:The Problem is with Clueless Users (Score:2)
Post on
Re:Annoying (Score:3, Informative)
Just "right click" the installer executable and select the "Run as" option to run the installer as a user with privilages.
I do NOT recommend RunAs, the _3_ kinds of Users (Score:2)
So to me there are _3_ "kinds" of users from a program requirements point of view:
Admin, Normal/PU, and "Normal/PU but must have admin to install AND must run as the same user they were installed by"
Our standard operating procedure for the installation of new software on a nonprivileged single user machine with 2k or XP is to:
logout, login as administrat
I have a 5 year old computer, you insensitive clod (Score:2)
Ever heard of Fast User Switching feature in Windows XP?
Ever heard of substantial prices for RAM? Windows XP OS's Fast User Switching requires extra RAM for each user logged in at the same time. Prepare to endure extended thrashing if you still use an old PC with less than 512 MB of RAM.
Regmon Filemon (Score:4, Informative)
You can eliminate the guess work by using Regmon and Filemon from here [sysinternals.com].
These utilities log all file and registry access attempts, successful or unsuccessful.
Most applications that "need" admin rights, actually only need the correct rights on a specific reg key or directory. Granting only the needed rights gets the app working without adding unnecessary rights/risks.
Re:Regmon Filemon (Score:2)
Nothing more fun than mucking around with the advanced file permission settings, even more fun to turn it on the registry using the super-ugly regedt32. Sure, I know how to do it, but what a pain to try to explain it to a Joe Sixpack user. And even more fun to sit there staring at the screen for minutes on end while these changes are actually being made to each key, every time you want to turn it on or off.
Mega-pain. A