From: SourceForge.net <no...@so...> - 2007-11-05 12:22:13
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Feature Requests item #1244694, was opened at 2005-07-26 04:32 Message generated for change (Comment added) made by jdempsey You can respond by visiting: https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=384722&aid=1244694&group_id=25576 Please note that this message will contain a full copy of the comment thread, including the initial issue submission, for this request, not just the latest update. Category: Installation and Environment Group: For 6.0 Status: Open Resolution: None Priority: 5 Private: No Submitted By: Jenni Merrifield (strawberryjamm) Assigned to: James Dempsey (jdempsey) 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) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >Comment By: James Dempsey (jdempsey) Date: 2007-11-05 23:22 Message: Logged In: YES user_id=558288 Originator: NO Much of this is already done as of 5.12, with the program defaulting to using the user's home directory for the settings files. Thus the program can be started and settings retained when installed in a read-only directory. On Windows the home directory is the user's folder under Documents and Settings. Still to be done is 1) Writing the point buy methods to the custom data folder 2) Checking for a read-only custom data folder and allowing the reactive selection of a new folder in addition to the current preferences. 3) Checking for a read-only character folder and allowing the reactive selection of a new folder in addition to the current preferences. These steps would avoid the need to build up the installer. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Comment By: Martijn Verburg (karianna) Date: 2007-05-12 01:26 Message: Logged In: YES user_id=252169 Originator: NO An issue for you now James, I'd get Edwin C Holley to take a look (he's the windows release monkey)? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Comment By: Martijn Verburg (karianna) Date: 2005-09-28 19:21 Message: Logged In: YES user_id=252169 You can have platform specific code in Java, it's just not 'nice', the code SB may not allow it :-). - K ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Comment By: Eric Beaudoin (ericbeaudoin) Date: 2005-09-28 08:22 Message: Logged In: YES user_id=324612 NIS may have something to install the whole program in the user dir (I'll have to check for that but I don't think so) but it really sucks at trying to parse and write ini files. The ini files are normally created by the PCGen application so it should deal with LUS issues. The problem is that it is build to be cross plate-form so I'm not sure it is wise to try to incorporate plate-form related code in PCGen. I also don't know if it is even possible to do so with a Java program. (Kar, do you know?) I'll try to find something but for now, my advise is to do the same this that the UNIX users do i.e. if you are not an administrator, install PCGen in the user directory or any other directory where the user has read and write access. Moving the ini files and the Custom dir is not enough anyway since the stregnt of PCGen is the customization and advance users change the .lst and game system files to accommodate their home rules. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Comment By: Martijn Verburg (karianna) Date: 2005-09-27 22:13 Message: Logged In: YES user_id=252169 Release monkey :-) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Comment By: Jenni Merrifield (strawberryjamm) Date: 2005-08-07 04:31 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Comment By: Jenni Merrifield (strawberryjamm) Date: 2005-07-26 04:37 Message: Logged In: YES user_id=931361 Added "for Windows" to the Summary ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can respond by visiting: https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=384722&aid=1244694&group_id=25576 |