[Pcgen-trackers] [ pcgen-Feature Requests-1244694 ] Make PCGen (Windows) Least-privileged User Account friendly

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Feature Requests item #1244694, was opened at 2005-07-25 11:32
Message generated for change (Settings changed) made by strawberryjamm
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Category: Installation and Environment
Group: None
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 7
Submitted By: Jenni Merrifield (strawberryjamm)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
>Summary: Make PCGen (Windows) Least-privileged User Account friendly

Initial Comment:
Windows users are being encouraged of late to select 
Least-Privileged User Accounts (LUA) for daily tasks, 
reserving Admin accounts for tasks that absolutely require 
it. This is much more secure than running as an Admin all 
the time (which is, unfortunately, the default for most XP 
users).

PCGen is already partially "LUA friendly", as it allows users 
to choose the location of application folders, thereby 
enabling the user to choose a "Character" folder that is not 
under "Program Files" (a region of the file system that is 
readable but not writable by a LUA account). Unfortunately, 
the LUA user has to go in and make these changes up front 
before successful use of the application is possible.

PCGen for Windows should use the "home" dir, 
(C:\Documents and Setings\<userid>\.pcgen) as the 
default location for folders where the application or user are 
expected to write or modify files. This includes 
the "characters" and "customsources" folders.

PCGen for Windows should automatically place the 
options.ini file under the user's local application data 
folder: "C:\Documents and Settings\<userid>\Local 
Settings\Application Data\PCGen". Alternatively, it could 
store the options data in the Windows Registry under 
HKCU (LUA users can't write to keys under HKLM).

There are possibly other ways and areas of PCGen than 
are not LUA friendly which I have not run into yet. I am 
also much less familiar with GMGen, having only used it 
once or twice so can not comment on what specific LUA 
issues it may have. Nevertheless, I would request that the 
entire PCGen and GMGen applications be scrutinized and 
tested for LUA friendlieness.

Thanks for your time and consideration.
Jenni A.M. Merrifield -=- strawberryJAMM

PS: Some information on developing for LUA: 
http://nonadmin.editme.com/DevelopingAsNonAdmin (It's 
Windows oriented, but there's some good stuff there that 
would apply to any developer on any OS)


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Comment By: Jenni Merrifield (strawberryjamm)
Date: 2005-08-06 11:31

Message:
Logged In: YES 
user_id=931361

As an addendum, "Windows Vista", which is in Beta 1, enforces 
least privileges for all users (including administrators) by default, 
requiring a username and password to run anything with higher 
privileges.

If work is done now to make PCGen a LUA application then it will 
have a better chance of working smoothly on "Windows Vista" 
when it ships next year.

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Comment By: Jenni Merrifield (strawberryjamm)
Date: 2005-07-25 11:37

Message:
Logged In: YES 
user_id=931361

Added "for Windows" to the Summary

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You can respond by visiting: 
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=384722&aid=1244694&group_id=25576