On Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:59:19 -0300, Clark F Morris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>A month or so ago I applied Service Pack 3 to Windowns XP home from a >download and started getting a message that Automatic Updates was >turned off. I tried to change the Automatic Updates setting but it >was locked (all of the choice buttons were greyed out). I think I got >the message that I didn't have the authority which was peculiar since >I was logged on to the account with administrator privileges. This >was annoying but since I normally apply the updates and don't use >automatic update, I ignored the problem hoping a subsequent update >would cure it. On Wednesday, I downloaded and tried to apply the >latest upgrade to Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite which normally is >a very simple exercise. The upgrade didn't work because I did not >have the administrator privilege for installing the True Vector >component. After making various attempts and checking the Zone Alarm >site, I went to the Microsoft site. There I found that for at least >some people Service Pack 3 fouls up some entries in the registry and >there is a fix. I have an e-mail into Microsoft right now verifying >that the fix only restores full administrator privileges to the >administrator logons and not the user logons and that the download >program mentioned also works on XP home as well as PRO. > >I suspect the simplest way to tell whether you have the problem is to >logon on to an account with administrator privileges and try to change >the Automatic Updates setting. If you can't change it, DON'T try to >install any systems software (Microsoft updates seem to work) like >Zone Alarm. Go to www.microsoft.com and from support go to the page >for Service Pack 3. You will find that there is free e-mail, chat AND >toll-free free support in North America for Service Pack 3 issues. >Apparently there have been a number of them. > >Before those of us who are in the mainframe environment feel >completely smug, there are PTF's and hiper alerts for a reason. While >I haven't read about anything like the DF/EF catalog problems that I >heard about or DFP PE chain problems that I experienced, no vendor is >free of major glitches. Given that Microsoft fixes and updates for >home users are to be installed by people who are not system >programmers or systems administrators, it is in a sense amazing to me >that the process works as well as it does. I might add that I read >the KB letters for all of the fixes I apply and have found them useful >in understanding why I am putting on the fix. > >I'm sending this because for many of us, Windows XP is the operating >system of choice or affliction. The problem with Automatic Updates was cured by deleting some Registry entries (since Microsoft has FREE support for Service Pack 3 problems check with them since there may be a different approach now) as recommended by e-mail support. This did not cure the install problem which is caused by the handling of administrator accounts in at least the XP home version. Apparently the settings for a logon are stored in a folder related to the logon in Documents and Settings. The setting for Owner (default user on startup) is "administrator". If a limited user-id is created, its setting is "user". If any other administrator accounts are created, their settings are "administrator user". If the Owner account is ever changed to be a limiter user, when it is changed back to administrator it also has the setting "administrator user". The scenario on my desktop computer was that we got the computer 4 years ago and ran it as a single user computer with my wife as the primary user. In this discussion, I will use the names Charlie, Joan and Homefire for the user-ids for modest security by obscurity. We then got a laptop and for security configured it with limited users Charlie and Joan. We also renamed the 'Owner' user-id to Homefire. We then did the same thing to the desktop. My wife found it a pain not to have her settings yet did not want to run with administrator privileges so I made user-id Joan an administrator and renamed it Homefire2. Then I logged on to Homefire2 and renamed Homefire to Joan. All was well until Microsoft tightened things in Service Pack 3 and the latest version of Zone Alarm wouldn't install because Homefire2 wasn't a full administrator. Microsoft provided the solution by having me logon in safe mode to the user-id Administrator and change the permission settings for the appropriate ID. The process also revealed that when a user-id is renamed, the associated folder is not. Thus on the desktop the related folder for Charlie is Charlie, the folder for Joan is Owner, and the folder for Homefire2 is Joan. I have recommended they change this in Windows 7 but I can see real problems with changing the peculiar behavior in existing running systems. I have followed up with a reply to all of the people at Microsoft involved with getting my system working again with my thanks and suggestions for software change. I also let support at Zone Alarm know about the resolution and possible action they could take. The permission "administrator user" did not cause a problem prior to Service Pack 3 and does not cause one in all software installs. A better fix may be available in the future. The bottom line is that at least for XP Home at Service Pack 3, where the current user-id with administrator privileges is NOT Owner (or a rename of Owner), the privilege expected by some software of "administrator" will not be seen. You can cause this problem on computer that currently doesn't have a problem by change who the administrator is. You also can cause later confusion by renaming User-ids. Clark Morris ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
