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What is the preferred praxis to install an application which does not distinguish between all/local users in a restricted Windows XP user account (domain based net)?

Sometimes I need to install software on a user's XP workstation which was not developed with restricted security permissions in mind. Normally I end up with an installation which gives all kinds of troubles then like startup errors, invisible icons, rw errors on files, directories or even registry keys, etc. To debug and enable this manually one by one is cumbersome and error-prone. So what's the preferred way to handle this?

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  • You may want to ask this on serverfault.com also, as it is a site for admins servicing user PCs and network admins.
    – JNK
    Aug 3, 2010 at 13:41

3 Answers 3

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there is your solution suRun or suRun

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  • who downvoted.. WHO Aug 3, 2010 at 16:37
  • No idea who voted this down, as this SuRun solved my problems completely and I will use it for this purpose in the future too. SuRun is a fancy program with an elaborated manual and Kai Bruns the German developer is definitely a master of his trade. I can recommend SuRun without reservations, but one has to study the manual first. I have configured it in the local administrator account in a way that it is completely invisible to the domain user, which is one of umpteen options. This domain account uses Bitstream Font Navigator to manipulate local fonts which is working perfectly now.
    – esc1729
    Aug 14, 2010 at 7:26
  • Thankyou, Moon, for pointing this out. Sorry that I cannot upvote you, as I have too less reputational points to do this just now.
    – esc1729
    Aug 14, 2010 at 7:31
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I hate to post a nonanswer, and I'm hoping someone comes along with something better, but in that situation I basically feel like I'm shoving my fingers in a dam to stop the leaks. The app was developed incorrectly, and you're left spending a ton of time making up for those mistakes. All you can do is try to find the best tools (like Process Monitor) to resolve the issues one-by-one.

However, if you have the ability to use Steady State, or some other method of allowing admin access in a temporary or limited sense, that can ease your workload a bit.

In a similar situation, I was able to document the time I was spending (the money my company was spending) resolving these issues (that were created by the vendor), and my management leaned on that vendor to the point where they developed a small utility that we could use to speed up the process.

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Do you have the option to right click and choose "Run As" and install as an administrator? Do you know the local admin credentials?

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    "Run As" will need the admin password in clear-text which we will not give to normal domain users.
    – esc1729
    Aug 14, 2010 at 6:56

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