XP user a/cs: preventing programs being avail. to all users

infected_shroom

I have setup a couple of limited accounts but want control over what programs are available under each account. How can I install a program as admin and prevent it from installing in the limited accounts?

If you have XP Professional and NTFS on the hard disk you could set permissions for the program folders so only you can access them. If your other users try they'll get an "Access denied" error.

philologos

sounds like the best option ^

infected_shroom

Karsini wrote:

If you have XP Professional and NTFS on the hard disk you could set permissions for the program folders so only you can access them. If your other users try they'll get an "Access denied" error.

I have xp pro and the two hard disks are NTFS file format.


The users I have setup dont really have access to any folders on the pc except the 'my documents' space which has been allocated to them. However, I recently installed a couple of programs - one being emule - the point to point file sharing software; and the other nokia smartsuite. Both showed up under the limited users account - and allow him to use emule - which i dont want - and secondly, all my texts/contact no.s are in view via nokia smartsuite.

I'm very very rusty on setting permissions - would appreciate it if one of you could remind me how exactly I can lock these two programs down via permissions.

No problem, First of all you'll need to turn off Simple File Sharing, this can be done in Control Panel > Folder Options. Click the View tab, scroll down to the end and uncheck "Use Simple File Sharing".

Now go to the program folder you want to lock, most likely its in "C:\Program Files". Right-click it and choose "Sharing and Security", then click the Security tab. On that tab, remove everything. Now click Add.
In the box you see now, type Administrators and click OK. Check the "Full Control box now and choose Apply.
Now repeat the above process and add another one called SYSTEM (this ensures that Windows itself can still access the folder), remembering to give it Full Control also. Click OK once you've done this.

You'll need to repeat this for other program folders you don't want your limited users to access.

The program shortcuts will still be visible to them but you can work around that by dragging the shortcuts off the All Users start menu and putting them on your own one. To do that, move it from the "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs" folder to "C:\Documents and Settings\<accountname>\Start Menu\Programs", replacing <accountname> with whatever the original name of your user account was (or is... if you've changed the name previously it won't be reflected here).

Sorry if my instructions aren't good enough, I'm not the best with that sort of stuff. But hopefully you can work it out.

abetarrush

Could u not just install the programs u dont want other to access into ur personal Documents, and make ur files and folders private?

infected_shroom

Thanks for that Karsini. Thats sorted things for now.

abetarrush wrote:

Could u not just install the programs u dont want other to access into ur personal Documents, and make ur files and folders private?

I suppose I could do this too - although the programs were already installed to the default folder by the time I realised they were showing up on the other user a/c. Didnt realise user accounts worked this way - I thought there was a completely seperate space with regard to programs/documents for each user - with the option for administrators to install programs accross all accounts.

Going forward, I can install to personal folders as abetarrush has suggested. However, this will not stop shortcut icons, etc appearing on other users desktops following an install and presumably vice versa. Is there any way of preventing this - aside from deselecting these options during install (but then again, maybe I would want the shortcut there)?

Cryos

infected_shroom wrote:

Thanks for that Karsini. Thats sorted things for now.


I suppose I could do this too - although the programs were already installed to the default folder by the time I realised they were showing up on the other user a/c. Didnt realise user accounts worked this way - I thought there was a completely seperate space with regard to programs/documents for each user - with the option for administrators to install programs accross all accounts.

Going forward, I can install to personal folders as abetarrush has suggested. However, this will not stop shortcut icons, etc appearing on other users desktops following an install and presumably vice versa. Is there any way of preventing this - aside from deselecting these options during install (but then again, maybe I would want the shortcut there)?

Hi Infected,

The simplest most effective way is the following:

Remove the programs from c:\documents and settings\all users\desktop & start menu by just right clicking and deleting,

Secondly navigate to the folders (in your case i think its C:\Program Files\eMule : c:\Program Files\Nokia) right click Hit the security tab and remove Users / Domain users from the list.

Effectivly what you are doing is removing the Shortcuts from everyones profile (including your own) and restricting access.