Menu
▾
▴
#21 Task Manager open during installation bug
Tested on Windows 7 Professional edition.
After multiple installation/uninstallation/reinstallation experiments, with Task Manager (TM) running/closed during the process, I've observed that somehow TM malfunctions the installation process of SEB (talking about v1.8). If TM is closed during installation, there's no problem with restrictions. Though, if TM is running during SEB's installation, the option "Enable Task Manager" (and many more) in the "Registry Values" of SEB's configuration window get bugged. I've added an attachment of the options I've selected for the installation so you can see for yourself. When I run SEB under these circumstances (even if TM is closed after the installation), I can FREELY Ctrl+Alt+Delete and select ANY of the following five(5) functions :
Lock this Computer
Switch User
Log off
Shut down
Ease of Access
Change a Password
Start Task Manager
What's relieving, is that even if I did open the TM with a Ctrl+Alt+Delete, I wouldn't be able to take advantage over it since SEB is running always on top. Alt+Tab won't help either since it can only switch windows between SEB's different pages, so I guess there's no security problem with this case.
Finally, in addition to this, sometimes I get this couple of errors (when I open SEB) notifying me about the utility's failure to acces those registry values (I suppose it's about that):
Error : "Not enough rights to edit registry keys!"
Error : "Error editing the windows registry!"
Maybe possible solutions to this :
-Ask user to close TM on his own
-Close TM and resume the installation
-Stop the installation if TM is detected running
-Confirm tha registry values are edited properly after installation
No registry values are selected during installation
Sorry, forgot to log in. That's me adding that bug report, contact me if you need any more details.
Hi, I do not consider running the Task Manager during the installation of SEB a good idea. Firstly, every installer program tells you to close as many applications as possible, for good reasons. Secondly, because the SebWindowsInstaller.msi (and SebStarter.exe) try to set registry values such as DisableTaskMgr, a collision with the running Task Manager is possible. Probably the TM holds a lock or semaphore locking these Registry values, which can then of course not be overwritten. This then will cause the other described problems. If SEB is installed properly and the SebWindowsService is working, you should not get error mesages like "Not enough rights", even when you are logged in as a standard user (which is normally the case), because the background-running SebWindowsService.exe will have the necessary administrative rights to do that.
All in all, I do not think the SEB installer can prevent the TM from being run during the SEB installation, because the TM has already been started then. This would require to kill the TM process from the installer. Even if ever possible, I would not recommend such brute force method.
Regards,
Dirk