User administration in XP

[dfi]

I'm a bit confused as to how to install programs in XP with multiple users. Currently there is the default administrator account, an account with admin privileges, and a limited user account. Now, when I install a new program, am I suppose to logon as the admin user, or runas with the limited user account?

One of the program that I am trying to install is trillian. If I install trillian logged on as the admin user, then the trillian folder only appears on the start menu of the admin user, and not on the start menu of the limited user. But what if I wanted to make trillian available on the start menu for all users? How do I go about doing that?

If I install trillian as the limited user, using runas administrator (not the admin account), then the start menu items do not appear in either the limited user account or the admin user account. Yet you can only logon to the administrator account if you use tweakui, right?

This would all make a lot more sense if I didn't have to create an admin user account, and instead could have only the default administrator account and the limited user account. But according the xp, I have to create at least one admin user account, right?

dfi

 

[spyordie007]

Some applications are smart enough to know and work within the multi-user enviroment but apparently trillian is not (or at least the install routine anyways).

On the computer there are 2 types of shortcuts, shortcuts that will appear for everybody (all user) and shortcuts that will only appear for one person (profile specific). The start menu (and profile) that will appear for everybody is under c:\documents and settings\all users\start menu\etc...; if you want a shortcut to appear for everybody just stick it in there (as opposed to a specific users folder).

How you would use administrative accounts in the perfect world:
In the perfect world applications would be good enough to run with user privilages (and most are nowadays) so you could be logged into the computer and run it entirely with user privilages. You would than log in to an admin account or use the runas context to make machine-wide changes.

Have at it,
Erik

 

[dfi]

Thanks a ton. I kept trying to find the answer on google, but turning up empty. I've always wondered what the "all users" folder was for. Duh!

dfi

 

[dfi]

Now I have a new question. I want to make it inconvenient for the admin user account to browse the net, so I want the admin user's start menu to NOT have my firefox shortcut. Is it possible to have shortcuts for only a group of users, say the limited user?

dfi