Multi user issue resolved

Published on November 8, 2005 By Chef Garry In WindowBlinds

At long last, I've finally managed to resolve my problem getting WB 4.95 working with multi-user accounts. I know there's at least one other soul with this problem so here's what worked.

First I uninstalled WB4.6 and rebooted. On reboot, I deleted all non-skin files in my WB directory, then installed WB4.95 and rebooted. Admin accounts worked with WB fine but not limited accounts so I made all users admins and tried again without success. So I rebooted with all users as admins. Now WB worked on all accounts.

Of course giving everyone admin rights isn't a good thing so I changed them back to limited users and tried changing skins. This time WB worked just fine even on limited accounts. A bit more effort than ODNT applications normally need but all's well now.

Comments (Page 1)

milksama

on Nov 10, 2005

WindowBlinds 5 Beta has not yet been given official multi-user support, but there are known workarounds to give it this functionality. Thank you for sharing your method to achieve this feature.

-Mike
[Stardock Support]

godskin

on Nov 23, 2005

> Of course giving everyone admin rights isn't a good thing
> so I changed them back to limited users and tried changing skins.
> This time WB worked just fine even on limited accounts.

Yes, at this time my WB works fine.
But after rebooting Windows, old classic theme is back and the 'apply changes' in WB is invalid.

Windows XP Professional SP2
1 administrator and 1 limited user accounts
WindowBlinds 5 Beta

keldorr

on Nov 26, 2005

Unfortunately this did not work for me either.

I still have the problem where the "other user" (the one the application was not installed under) can't use Windowblinds. The application will launch when the exe file is opened, but it can't find any loaded skins.

Oh well, c'est la vie.

Neil Banfield

on Nov 26, 2005

godskin: Are you using beta2 by any chance?

godskin

on Nov 27, 2005

Gave up, removed! It spent me too much time.

Thank you all.

Neil Banfield

on Nov 27, 2005

I will take that as a yes.

Chef Garry

on Dec 06, 2005

Well unfortunately it hasn't stayed fixed. Whether it's the latest build (downloaded today) or something else, the above mentioned fix hasn't stuck. In fact, once I switched a user to classic skin to see what would happen and even the native XP skin won't load.

This is an issue that I really would like to see some progress on.

Neil Banfield

on Dec 06, 2005

Do the other users have full access to the WindowBlinds directory?

Chef Garry

on Dec 06, 2005

Thanks Neil. Yeah they can access the directory but aren't allowed to open anything. If I run them as admin, they can access wbconfig. However, applying a skin gives me the loading dialogue for about the right amount of time but noting actually changes.

In the interm, I rolled back to 4.6. Limited users can change skins if they go through display properties but not using wbconfig. Something got screwed up in the rollback. sigh

Neil Banfield

on Dec 07, 2005

Chef Garry: You ran wbconfig as a different user under their account, or granted their user admin rights?

Chef Garry

on Dec 07, 2005

I tried both. Initially, I tried a "run-as" in the limited account using my admin logon. Then I tried giving the limited user admin rights. In both cases the results were as described. Even rebooting with the user settings as admin didn't change the situation.

Neil Banfield

on Dec 07, 2005

A runas would not have worked as Wbconfig would have been modifying your registry settings & probably changed the skin on your desktop if you were logged in!

Chef Garry

on Dec 08, 2005

It remains that other users cannot change skins, even when given admin rights to the machine. The run-as was only one attempt to make wbconfig work on their accounts.

Bichur

on Dec 08, 2005

just curious tjesterb posted this in may on one of the threads and i saved it to try later incase i needed to:

#4 by tjesterb
Wed, May 18, 2005 8:33 PM
Reply

Quote Watch
[tjesterb]
Finally got it! FOr anyone else who may have the same problem, here is the fix.

In the Windoblinds folder is a userpermissions text.

Open a command line (Start>run>type cmd) change to your Windowblinds directory (cd C:\program files\stardock\object desktop\windowblinds) and type in the userpermissions text: CACLS.EXE . /E /T /G USERS:F

This will run the batch file that give users in limited accounts access to install and change WB skins.

The kids think I'm cool again......should last for about 10 minutes

does this work?

Chef Garry

on Dec 08, 2005

Thanks Bichur but unfortunately no. In the security tab for properties in my account, everyone has full permissions (except creator/owner which seems weird). However, in properties in the limited user accounts, they read permission only. It would seem this is connected to the problem.

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