CD Input: WinXP Home limited acct problem

[KChambers]

Hi there--

I've just found your program, and it works great as long as I'm running as administrator on this XP Home computer (Toshiba Satellite M45-S269 w/ Matshita DVD-RAM UJ-841S).

If I run as a limited user, then the DVD player isn't detected at all, unless I changed the CD Communication setting to "limited". Then the drive is able to read the CD, but will not rip. Hitting the "rip" button results in no action whatsoever (no crash, no dialogue, nothing).

I'm setting up this computer for a non-technically adept friend, and want him to be able to run all his software without needing to use an admin account, so that he may be better protected from himself.

Thanks in advance for any help!

KC

[LtData]

Re: CD Input: WinXP Home limited acct problem

Do you have full access to the directory where you are trying to rip the CD?
Also, give him full access to the dMC install folder.
The easy way to do this in XP Home is to share the folder and enable full access.

Edit: Moved to dMC Support.

[KChambers]

Re: CD Input: WinXP Home limited acct problem

Hi Lt,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, the user does have full access to the destination directory. As far as giving full access to the dMC install folder, does dMC really require this. I'd like to avoid that as much as possible for a couple reasons. First, the permissions system in XPHome is severely crippled, so I'd have to install to the Shared Folders area, or install once for each user to their respective My Documents area. As far as I know, I can't just share any arbitrary subfolder in the My Programs folder. Second, for this user I'd really like to avoid using an application that requires poking holes in a reasonable security regiman just just so that it can perform its normal functions. WinAmp, which is what I've use mostly in the past, is like this too. Now I'm looking for something that will just "follow the rules" for a basic XPHome system.

Thanks for any help & insight,
KC

Do you have full access to the directory where you are trying to rip the CD?
Also, give him full access to the dMC install folder.
The easy way to do this in XP Home is to share the folder and enable full access.

Edit: Moved to dMC Support.

[LtData]

Re: CD Input: WinXP Home limited acct problem

Are you using dMC r11.5?
Oh, and as for the "Limited" communication set, that choice is cause of how the limited account works. There is a very small difference between Limited and the regular settings, but the results are the same.

Edit: Woops, typo apparently made a curse word x.x

[KChambers]

Re: CD Input: WinXP Home limited acct problem

Are you using dMC r11.5?
Oh, and as for the "Limited" communication set, that choice is cause of how the limited aco*blooper**blooper**blooper**blooper* works. There is a very small difference between Limited and the regular settings, but the results are the same.

I believe it's r11.5. Is there a way to verify this? I just downloaded it from download.com a couple days ago. File version of cdgrab.exe is 6.4.0.0.

Is there any way to turn on some sort of debug logging? I'd be happy to send such stuff your way, if it would help.

[xoas]

Re: CD Input: WinXP Home limited acct problem

I believe it's r11.5. Is there a way to verify this?

Yes. Open dMC Configuration (Start>All Programs>dBpowerAMP Music Converter>Configuration>dBpowerAMP Music Converter Configuration).

Best wishes,
Bill

[KChambers]

Re: CD Input: WinXP Home limited acct problem

Yes. Open dMC Configuration (Start>All Programs>dBpowerAMP Music Converter>Configuration>dBpowerAMP Music Converter Configuration).

Best wishes,
Bill

OK, it says "dBpowerAMP Music Converter: Release 11.5".

[Spoon]

Re: CD Input: WinXP Home limited acct problem

dBpowerAMP requires:

read/write/execute permissions to its install folder and sub-folders, read/write permissions where audio is being saved to and read / write access to the registry.

[KChambers]

Re: CD Input: WinXP Home limited acct problem

dBpowerAMP requires:

read/write/execute permissions to its install folder and sub-folders, read/write permissions where audio is being saved to and read / write access to the registry.

Thanks Spoon--

I went ahead and gave full access to the Illustrate folder for everyone (had to go into "safe mode" to do it). Now everything works great, so I went ahead and registered.

But if I can make a suggestion, please consider putting all the files you need to write to to the "Application Data" folder for the user, so you then don't need write access to the install directory. Most people (especially XP Home users) aren't going to know how to do what I did, and so will just use an admin account. And that just doesn't seem like a wise thing to encourage, security-wise.

Just my $0.02.

KC

[LtData]

Re: CD Input: WinXP Home limited acct problem

Well, IMHO, limited user accounts for XP (Pro or Home) are HORRIBLY broken anyway. The easier thing to do is make the user a "Power User", which is closer to a limited user than an administrator, but isn't as shackled as the limited user account.

[KChambers]

Re: CD Input: WinXP Home limited acct problem

Well, IMHO, limited user accounts for XP (Pro or Home) are HORRIBLY broken anyway. The easier thing to do is make the user a "Power User", which is closer to a limited user than an administrator, but isn't as shackled as the limited user account.

It may be broken in other ways, but I don't think disallowing writes to an install directory by limited users is unreasonable. Linux/unix is the same way in this respect, it just took MS years to catch up and create and enforce a decent seperation of concerns. Executables, libraries, and global settings go in one place, user-controllable settings go in another place specific to that user. Actually, Linux/unix takes it another reasonable step further and puts global settings away from the executable (in the /etc folder, I guess that would be C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ on XP).

KC

[Spoon]

Re: CD Input: WinXP Home limited acct problem

It will be like this for r12

[LtData]

Re: CD Input: WinXP Home limited acct problem

OK, rephrase: The way programs work and the way Limited XP accounts work is broken. If you try to install a program that wants admin rights, XP just denies it. What it SHOULD do, as Macs and Linux do, is prompt for the administrator/root password and then installs it with those rights. Thankfully, this is one thing MS fixed in Vista (formerly Longhorn).

[Spoon]

Re: CD Input: WinXP Home limited acct problem

Exactly, just like a firewall, when a program tries to access something Windows should ask the end user if it is ok, ie is the program trusted.

[KChambers]

Re: CD Input: WinXP Home limited acct problem

It will be like this for r12

Hey cool, that's great to hear.