[softwarelist] Re: OPW - Font list, XP vs Vista (32-bit)

  • From: Martin Wuerthner <public@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: davidpilling@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 09 Mar 2008 11:38:01 +0100

In message <4f7d331d1fdave@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
          Dave Symes <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> In article <47D319C2.9050106@xxxxxxxx>,
>    Clive Bonsall <C.Bonsall@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

>> Interestingly, I've just noticed that in Vista it's possible to change
>> the user account type between "standard" and "administrator". However,
>> even tho' I had my own named account set to "administrator" it still did
>> not give me complete freedom to make changes. Only when I switched to
>> the default Administrator account was I able to do this ... curious!

> Apparently, there are two levels of administrator accounts in Vista, a bog
> standard Admin access, and a higher level Admin access.

Even with the same account you have two different levels of access. By 
default, when logged in as an admin you only have the same rights as a 
standard user. Only when you run a process "elevated" it gets the full 
admin rights. This is part of User Account Control (UAC).

> Can't remember the minutia now, did read it a while back and thought,
> !$£%&*^()****??! and moved on.

Things are far worse than that. For instance, you may be logged in as 
an admin and change some system file (or registry entry) and you will 
find that everything looks OK, but if you have UAC enabled (which it 
is by default) you will find out later that Windows has not actually 
changed the system file at all, it has only created a file in your 
local user store and overlays it onto the system file to make you 
think the change has happened. When you log in again as the same user 
you see the changed file but the system itself or other users still 
see the original system file, so the files Windows shows you, even 
when you are logged in as an admin, are not those that are stored on 
the hard disc.

VirtualRPC stores its HostFS directory (the emulated RiscPC hard disc) 
in its installation directory, which effectively stops VirtualRPC from 
working correctly on Vista while UAC is on. With UAC off it works 
fine.

Martin
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Martin Wuerthner          MW Software          martin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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