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Need 2KPro advice/user can't open apps?

T

TGirl

Member
We are just starting to use 2kPro on some dexktops and I found that if I log on as myself and install applications, then log on as the user - they can't open the software. I'm a bit rusty with the 2000 stuff. Should I give them certain user rights, do they need to be a local administrator? Is there someplace in computer management to allow all users access to the programs or is it a service?

Also, anyone with experience upgrading from 98 to 2kPro - any advice or problems to look out for?

My supervisor seems to think 34Mg of memory will work (with Office 2000 coming next) I told him I read 128Mg is more like it and best with a 300Mghz or better processor. If a computer is still using EDO memory - is that pretty much a dead giveaway it's too old to support 2k?

Anyone that has done this and can tell me what to watch out for would be really helping me out - to make a good impression for my internship position! hehe. I'd just like to know if there are things I should look out for.

It sure seems like many sites have yanked a lot of their info regarding 2000 off the site and all there is is XP mostly. I just don't see how companies can afford to constantly pgrade their entire network as quickly as MS keeps throwing new systems at us! Slow Down, please!
 
I'm in a good mood tonight so here you go, I also rated you since I noticed nobody else has...

34MB of RAM is just plain not enough, I belive the minium required for 2K Pro is 64MB however I would recommend 128+ MB (especially if you plan on running more than one Office app at the same time.) With 64MB you will be pulling out of the swap file immediatly after a reboot, however with 128 you at least arent using the swap file until you start to load apps.

The reason that you are having problems loading those apps under differant user accounts is that there are 2 differant places shortcuts are installed for the start menu/desktop/etc. if you browse your HD you will find a "Documents and Settings" folder, in which are all the individual user's profiles and also an "all users" profile. Any item in your profile gets accessed (or loaded, etc.) when you log on in addition to everything in the "all users" profile, likewise for everyone else. In your profile folder you will find a "start menu" folder which contains the start menu items that are specific to your profile (ie. they only show on the start menu when you log in) in additon to those items you will also see everything in the "start menu" folder under "all users". So if you want those shortcuts to be available to everyone simply move the shortcuts from your profile into the "all users" profile and everyone will see their shortcuts on the start menu.

In regards to your 98 to 2K upgrade question I would NEVER recommend an Upgrade install of an OS, I would always recommend starting with a clean install. Before you do that you might want to check Microsoft's HCL (Hardware Compatibility List) to ensure your box has hardware that is compatible with 2K. I belive it's just microsoft.com/hcl

Dont worry, most of the business world is sticking with 2K for now (and probably will be until the ".net" or whatever they decide to call it next Microsoft OS is going to be called). I can tell you that we do not plan on rolling out XP at our site ever, we run 2000 on everything and are not planning on upgrading until the next major change. I have XP at my desk there and it tends to be a PITA when administering the 2K network as a number of the admin tools dont work correctly on XP.

-Spy
 
34MB or RAM is laughably low. Don't even consider using less than 128MB if you want to get any work done.

As for the applications issue: this is probably more of an apps issue than an OS issue. First thing to do is ensure the program vendor claims the app will run on W2K.

ALWAYS install applications from an Administrator account. Administrators can write to Program Files, while users can't.

To answer your specific question about this specific app, we need to know the error your user is getting. If the program wasn't written the way Microsoft said to, it may not work under W2K no matter what you do. MS has been telling programmers the "right" way to write apps since NT4 came out. However, since most users were running Win95/98, many developers either ignored these recommendations or simply didn't know any better. Well, guess what: under W2K and WinXP, those rules suddenly become important, and many poorly written applications are being exposed as poorly written applications.

(And MS is guilty, too: Flight Simulator 2002 must be run as administrator! Disgusting.)

So we really need more info to help with the apps problems.
 
Thank you all so much. And thank you for giving me a rating! This will really help me out a lot!

I forwarded this forum to my supervisor's boss. She seems more open to other ideas and advice. I think they are planning on using 128Mg of memory. Do you think we should have more? W2KPro, Office 2000, and other telnet applications. Some use Photoshop and others as well.

I REALLY thank you all for your experienced insight!

TGirl😀
 
Some versions of photoshop won't work correctly on W2K out of the box. You need to change some registry permissions. If you get an error, search on the exact error text on Adobe's website and they'll have the procedure for you to fix it.

That's just one example of programmers not paying attention to the rules. 🙂
 
Oh yea, one more thing. The user could see the program but when she tried to execute it, the error was something to the effect that she didn't have permission to use it, I think. The way I fixed it was to make her a member of the local administrators group. I do remember than when I removed photoshop and reinstalled it to try to fix it(a hand me down machine for her from a previous employee) it asked me about who I wanted to install the program as. I had never seen this before so I chose myself (who has administrative rights/both locally and on the domain).

It worked for me but when I had her sign it, she couldn't open it.

On a different machine I loaded Office 2k (W2Kpro) and logged in as the user to be sure she could open it and sure enough - it wouldn't open. I gave her local administrator rights and it worked.

Nogin, you are right! That's where I went to figure out what the deal was. At least I'm learning something important by going thru this!

Now, I don't think I like giving them local administrator rights - maybe power user. So next time when I load an application which will probably be Monday, what is the correct way/place to load these so any user on that machine can access the program? I did see on the profile tab when right clicking my computer that you have three choices - restricted user, and two other choices that I don't recall. Do you think THIS might have something to do with it. I remember one said that choice allowed access to programs and one didn't.

About that time, my supervisor walked up and wanted to know what the problem was and why was I signed in as the new employee since she was supposed to change her password the first time she logged in. Well, I knew this, but of course that can be changed on the server. But I did this because of the Photoshop incident and didn't want that to happen to a brand new employee. He reminded me this wasn't the "proper way" of doing things. Do you guys think I was out of line by doing this? The politics are killing me!

Obviously, I need to get my books back out!!! I've mostly been dealing with 98 and some 95 machines, so it's time to get reaquainted!!!

I just want to verify that I've understood you correctly. They CAN see the programs, just can't get it to execute.
 
I just want to verify that I've understood you correctly. They CAN see the programs, just can't get it to execute.
Click to expand...

In that case, for each app that won't run, you'll need the EXACT error text, go to the vendor's website and look for a fix.

Thankfully, with WinXP fitering into the world, more and more software vendors will release software that plays by the rules.
 
Certain programs will not run without administrator privleges. A way to over come this is to have them login as a user, then run program as an administrator. Look up "Run As." I am stuck on a Win95 box today so I can't tell you the exact shortcut to get to the run as command. They will need a local admin account, but with the run as command they have to think of what they are doing instead of just plugging away.

Most programs should run fine as a "power user" but applications like CD Burning have issues with non admin permissioned users trying to run them.
 
Another way for the apps to run is to change the registry permissions for that software. Personally, I don't want most users to be Power Users. You can go to run, regedt32, then go to the Local Machine tab. Expand the software tab and select the software that is having trouble, then go to the Security menu at the top of the window. You can then give all users full rights for that software. Go the the advanced tab and check the bottom box, something that says have permissions propogate to daughter objects. I prefer this to Power User.
 
Thank you all for this great advice. It just seems bizarre that Outlook 2002 (the particular program) would not open for a user account. This is Microsoft with Microsoft, pretty basic I would think.

I need to figure out a basic set-up method for all these users we are upgrading. I didn't think it would be much of a big deal at all. I'm probably making this more complicated than it should be.

If there are any users with 2000pro right click my computer and look under profiles tab. There are three radio buttons to choose from which I don't recall seeing before. I'm thinking this really must have something to do with it. See what you think, if your able.

Thanks again,

TGirl
 
Outlook should run fine with "User" rights. Outlook stores all the data in the user's profile so it does not require any special permissions to run. If it is not running there may be something wrong with Outlook.

-Spy
 
If Outlook is not opening, it is probably a bad installation of Outlook and you should re-install. Or, it could be a bad profile in Outlook. Right click on Outlook and look at properties/profiles. If no one has a profile set up on the computer, just delete any that are there. Then have a user try to open Outlook after logging on. If, you do all this, and Outlook still does not open, then my next thought would be that somehow your security permissions have been screwed up.
 
Spy and Noggin,

You are both right!! I went to Outlook at Microsoft and spent some time searching for the particular problem. I went back up to work and tried to open Outlook (it was Outlook 97, sorry) as the user without administrative rights and recreated the error message:

"Program is not registered properly. Please run setup again. You don't have appropriate permission to perform this operation."

So I went home and searched the knowledge base and found that there is in fact a problem with Outlook 97 running on W2K! It says this program is only able to run under administrative rights and in order to fix the problem, you have to make a registry change.

I thought for sure I had set the user up incorrectly or something. That's the first I've experienced a problem like that with a Microsoft app running on a Windows machine. I suppose anything is possible, now!

This is going to be very interesting as our servers run on NT 4.o and we're upgrading the users to 2000Pro. It kind of throws a new kink into the whole ballgame. I already found that the Pro machines couldn't run a particular printer because the 2000 driver wouldn't work. You have to install an NT driver, instead to make it work. And of course, Photoshop gave me the same kind of problem I had with outlook.

At least it restores some of my confidence that maybe I DO know something about what I'm doing, afterall!

Thank you all for your suggestions and help as your explanations helped me understand other things better as well. You're the best!

One more thing, do you suggest we start doing security patches/bug fixes for the Office Products, not just the Operating Systems? I never really thought about it before and I don't think we do that as of now.

And, what are your feeling on upgrading from 98 to 2000Pro verses a fresh install? My Director asked me to look into this for her. Can any of you tell me your experiences and whether you have a prefered way of doing this and why?

Thanks SO much!

TGirl

 
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