Especially under Windows XP Home Edition, some of the users monitored by PC TimeWatch may complain that they cannot play some games if they don't have an administrator account. And giving them an administrator account is giving them the right to disable PC TimeWatch, which is not what you want.
This problem has been mentioned by Microsoft in the following article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q307091
More sophisticated solutions are described below (credit given to Jimmy S.).
Before applying any of these solutions, you should be made aware that no game should normally require administrator privileges for normal use. The installation program might require such privileges but only temporarily (which means that the system administrator should install the game, not a limited user).
Playing games on the Internet under an administrator account opens a major security hole on your system. So you should first verify that the game actually requires an administrator account past the installation steps.
Solution #1: RunAsUser, SuperExec, RunAsSpc and Protection Manager utilities
These utilities have been designed just to solve this problem.
RunAsUser can be downloaded from:
http://www.palmersoft.co.uk/main.asp?content=runasuser
NB: PalmerSoft seems to be out of business now. The above link is currently broken.
SuperExec is available here (beware: SuperExec appears to have problems under XP SP3. A new version fixing these problems and offering a lot of new features will be made available shortly).
http://jc.bellamy.free.fr/fr/superexec.html
The page is in french but the program supports the english language and can be downloaded from this link:
http://jc.bellamy.free.fr/download/superexec/installse.zip
Launch the installer which allows you to install an english version of the software (page #3 of the wizard).
RunAsSpc is a german utility (english, german, spanish). It's also free for personal use but a reminder screen is displayed when the target application is launched. It doesn't create the shorcuts automatically like SuperExec but appears to work in all environments.
http://www.robotronic.de/runasspcEn.html
Protection Manager is a sophisticated commercial product specifically designed to solve this kind of problems and many others:
http://www.winternals.com/Products/ProtectionManager/Default.aspx
Solution #2: Jimmy's article
Some games will work with limited accounts after they have been installed and run once either using an administrator account, or by temporarily changing the limited user account(s) to an admin account in Control Panel / User Accounts, just for the purpose of running the game the first time in order to be able to install the necessary files and create the keys in the registry that it needs to function, but may not be able to due to the restrictive nature of limited accounts.
If that mouthful doesn't resolve the issue, use the "Run As.." command instead:
1. Click Start / Control Panel / User Accounts / Create a New Account / Name the Account: "able2play" (without quotes) / Next Pick: "Computer-Administrator" & Click "Create Account";
2. Click on your new able2play account and Create a Password for it;
3. When your limited user wants to play a game that requires Administrator privileges they can Right-Click the shortcut to that game / Click Run As... / "The Following User": able2play and enter the password. Simple as that!
I know what you're thinking: That defeats the purpose of the limited user account.
To secure the "able2play" account so that it can't be used to logon to the computer:
First add a shortcut to the windows logoff routine into the RUN key of the able2play registry. I made a reg patch to simplify this process if you wish to use it:
4. Logon to the "able2play" account,
5. <ONLY RUN THIS PATCH USING THE "ABLE2PLAY" ACCOUNT>
Save this patch to your drive and then doubleclick it to install it to your registry.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/nibblesnbits/OnlyRunUsingAble2PlayAccount.reg
OR
*Instead of using the reg patch, click Start / Run / regedt32 / browse to:
[HKCU\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] and
Click Edit / New / String value / ValueName: logoff / Value data: logoff
NB (credit: philippe1): Please note that this step is actually not necessary. The new able2play account will not be added to the Authorized Users list by default unless the PCTW Manager explicitly adds this account to the list. So nobody will be able to logon using this account.
From now on, if anyone logs on with the able2play account, the computer will log them off immediately. They will not gain access to an administrators desktop! :-) .
Next you can hide the account so that it won't show up on the Welcome Screen:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_hide_users.htm (thanks Doug!).
You can also use the utility available on this page:
http://www.intelliadmin.com/blog/2006/09/hide-user-accounts-from-windows-xp.html
Direct link: http://www.intelliadmin.com/XPUserHide.exe.
--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call /
Contact MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
Solution #3: For advanced users of XP and Windows 2003 only: RunAsAdmin
This software is presented here:
http://www.harper.no/valery/CategoryView,category,RunAsAdmin.aspx#a79c17dba-9f6c-480e-a236-e11f671ca4bc
and can be downloaded from SourceForge:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/runasadmin/
It has been written to secure the XP environment. Once installed, all accounts, including administrator accounts, run by default in a restricted security context with limited permissions. Operations requiring administrator privileges need right elevation, like under Windows Vista.
This software can be used to solve the problem of games requiring administrator privileges. Once you have installed the software, you can setup all accounts to run unrestricted (they are restricted by default). They will therefore have their standard permissions enabled (you must do that for each account since options are stored on a per-user basis: login under the target account, set the unrestricted options in RunAsAdmin and logoff). When a limited user needs to run a program with administrator privileges, she can then do that from the RunAsAdmin tray icon or from the RunAsAdmin context menu in Windows Explorer. No password is needed. Please see the program's documentation.
However, RunAsAdmin is a low level software that is still in beta test. It directly replaces the standard shell and can therefore produce side effects. We have succesfully tested it here and it is apparently stable but you must be cautious and test thoroughly before adopting it. Only advanced Windows users should install RunAsAdmin.
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