HiPath Procenter Observer Install/Run problems 1

[LonnieMitchell]

I am not sure this is the correct forum, but it seems to be the closest one I can find that touches on the area I need help with. I have a user who just received a new Dell desktop computer to replace her previous computer which was several years old. This individual uses the HiPath Procenter Observer to view the activity within her group. The program installs fine, but when she (a Power User) tries to run the program she gets a "THERE IS NO (CORRECT) ACCESS TO THE REGISTRY. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR" every time. If I log in (domain admin) I can run the program fine. I figure this has to be a permissions issue, but I've given full control of the installation folder to the power users and even setup this user individually and did the same for this particular folder on the computer. Does anybody have any insight into this and what I need to do to correct it and allow her to run the application?

 

[donb01]

You said "new" and "Dell" in the same sentence, which I will take to mean the computer has Vista on it?? I'm not blowing you off by any means, as this is a Siemens product and I use it myself (and just set up a new Vista system at my home and haven't tried to install this stuff yet), but you may wish to also post the question in the Windows Vista forum.

I don't think you need to be logged in to your domain to access your network - just the resources on it, so one suggestion might be to have that user login to that computer ONLY, not the domain, which is easy to change if you set the computer up to require Ctrl_Alt-Delete to login. Click the options button and choose "This Computer" instead of the domain.

Then go in and make that user on that machine an Administrator (which is different than being a domain administrator).

See if she can access it that way.

The other thing you can try is to right click on the application and go into properties, and if it's still like XP you can say to run that program AS administrator. You may have to provide the administrator password the first time, but you can save it and she doesn't need to know it.

Just some suggestions.... I haven't done much troubleshooting in Vista yet. If this isn't Vista, then most of what I said came from XP experience anyway )

 

[LonnieMitchell]

Thanks Donb01. I am actually running XP on all workstations in the building thanks to the downgrade option to XP from Vista. I am afraid I won't be allowed to make the user a local admin on her machine due to company policy. However, I am very interested in your suggestion of being able to run the program with administrative credentials. I am able to do a normal Run As with my credentials to get the program to run, but I am unfamiliar with a Run As option located under the properties of the program file itself which would allow me to save my credentials for running that program only to allow the user to be able to run the program on their own. Can you give me some more info on this. I can't find a Run As option under properties, and the normal Run As (located on same pop up menu as Properties) will not allow saving of credentials as it's a one time only deal each time you use it.

 

[donb01]

Hey - I didn't even know that was available on XP! I do it all the time on Windows Server 2003 and Vista, but I checked the advanced tab under properties and there it was.

If your organization has a lax security policy like ours does the local Administrator login is still there and has no password. Most of our users are too stupid to know that, and we force the CTRL-ALT-DELETE logon method so it's not readily apparent because the logon box comes set to have you login to the domain.

If that is the case you don't have to make her a local Administrator - all you need to do is enable the alternate credential option for the program, and then when she runs it she needs to tell it to run as "WorkstationName\Administrator" and leave the password blank. This is the local PC Administrator only. Normally your users are logged in as "DomainName\User" and all but the smart ones probably don't know they can change it.

I would be interested to know if it works.

Also, have you tried uninstalling the application and doing the installation while logged in as the actual machine administrator rather than logging in as a privileged domain user? This may fix the whole problem. I have noticed that when logged in as a privileged domain user that things I do are generally not visible or accessible to anyone else on the PC. It could simply be a matter of having the application trying to store its working data in some "local" directory under Documents and Settings that does not exist unless you are logged in as that specific user.

If you install when logged in as the machine administrator the data will be put in a location where everyone has access to it no matter what.

 

[LonnieMitchell]

Donb01, thanks again for the added info. I actually hadn't tried to login as the machine admin and install the program that way. It's a good idea that I will have to keep in mind for the future.

After discussions with the sys admin this morning it was decided we would go ahead and setup the user as a local admin, but just not tell her. As you hinted to above, sometimes the less a user knows about their level of access to things the better. This cleared up the issue we were getting and the user can now run the program just fine under her own login. For now we are going to leave the setup as is, but I will keep your ideas in mind for the next time we run into this issue, becuase I am sure we will be seeing it again at some point. I appreciate all your assistance on this.