A question for all Trainz users

[rweber95]

If you run Trainz on your home computer and you are the 'Owner' or 'Administator' of your system, why aren't you logged into Windows as Administrator? If you do this you'll never have to remember to run certain programs as Administrator. It might prevent some of the problems we see mentioned here.

Bob

 

[Davie_UCF]

My user account is classed as administrator, I beleive thats fine..

But I also believe using the proper hidden administrator account on windows is not recommended for security reasons.

 

[dnevans8]

From what I have read Windows is designed for use in an office situation with many computers working over a network even if it says Home in the title of the product. In this case there is a higher administrator who looks after all the computers. This is not very helpful for the home user where there might only be a single user of the computer who keeps getting messages about "do you really want to run this" etc.

If you are the only user of the computer then it is possible to turn off the User Access Control (UAC) in the Control Panel which will remove the need to run applications "as administrator" and remove the irritating pop up asking for confirmation to run an application. As previously said this could be less secure for example some update programs request permission to run with UAC on but if turned off could run without you knowing.

 

[shaneturner12]

Bad idea to turn off UAC.

I don't know if many people know, but if an application is installed with UAC on, then the application must be run with UAC turned on.

I try to avoid using technical language where possible, but it is needed here to explain the problem. (Strangely enough, I was reading about that in a computer magazine not too long ago)

The technical bit

Scenario 1: When UAC is turned on

When UAC is turned on, Windows uses a hidden folder at C:/Users/<username>/AppData/Local/VirtualStore/ to store the information (which is why you get the UAC prompt and the requirement to run as admin), and as a result, some data gets redirected to that folder (so if a program is writing to C:/Program Files/test, it would actually be redirected to C:/Users/<username>/AppData/Local/VirtualStore/Program Files/test.

Also, a similar thing happens in the registry, because Windows treats all accounts as standard accounts, and the UAC prompt is basically so a user can request elevated rights to access the VirtualStore data and the registry.

Scenario 2: When UAC is turned off

When UAC is turned off, Windows no longer uses the VirtualStore folder, which basically means that anything that was created before turning off UAC the program will not be able to find, as instead of looking in VirtualStore, it will be looking in it's actual folder - where it will not be able to find the information. Also, it writes to the registry differently.

Solution: You will need to re-install any programs that were installed whilst UAC was on in order to use them when UAC is turned off.


Shane

 

[johnwhelan]

If you run Trainz on your home computer and you are the 'Owner' or 'Administator' of your system, why aren't you logged into Windows as Administrator? If you do this you'll never have to remember to run certain programs as Administrator. It might prevent some of the problems we see mentioned here.

Bob

Slightly simplified but basically Admin level accounts have certain privileges which are not required to run most software. These include the ability to write or modify a wider range of files such as system files than a standard account.

When you visit a web site programs such as IE allow other programs such a Flash to assume its permissions and these are inherited from the account. Some one who wants to install Malware on the machine basically wishes to modify the contents of the system files. By running in a standard level account these files accesses are denied and your machine protected. Note these days most Malware is installed by simply visiting a web site and often the Malware injector has been inserted into the web site unknown to the web site administrator.

Cheerio John