XP Pro as Non-Admin

Anyone have a "good" resource for which applications will be unusable to users running in the user group (non-admin, non-power user)?  I have seen that some default apps in XP will not run; such as writing files to a CD using the default XP methods.  Will windows update work as a non-admin, non-power user?

Thanks

Automatic Updates work when running as non-admin, but you have less control over how they work.

But the main Windows Update site, IIRC, won't work unless you're an administrator.

Hmm... It's strange that you can't burn CDs with XP's built-in controls as a regular user. I always run my machine as a limited user (non-admin, non-power) and I have no problems burning files to CD using XP's CD burning wizard. You might want to look into that a bit more as your problem might not be security related.

W3bbo wrote:



Automatic Updates work when running as non-admin, but you have less control over how they work.

But the main Windows Update site, IIRC, won't work unless you're an administrator.

Auto update only works for me when I login as the Admin.

non-admin on XP could work.... but it's painful.

sicRrh wrote:

Anyone have a "good" resource for which applications will be unusable to users running in the user group (non-admin, non-power user)?  I have seen that some default apps in XP will not run; such as writing files to a CD using the default XP methods.  Will windows update work as a non-admin, non-power user?

Thanks

Aaron's blog is a great resource - http://blogs.msdn.com/aaron_margosis/

Windows Update will not work, in fact, it doesn't even work if you launch IE using runas with an administrative account. You must be actually logged in as an admin for WU to work.

Automatic updates will continue to work though. Scheduled installations will take place and the "install updates and shut down" option is also available. You won't get notifications by default, but you can change that using group policy (start/run/gpedit.msc). The setting you're looking for is in Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Windows Update, it's called "Allow non-administrative users to receive update notifications".

I've been running XP as a non-admin for years now. After a while, you learn what can and can't be done, and how to get around some of the limitations. Vista sure is a huge improvement in this area though.

I never noticed the CD burning thing, but that's just because I never used it. I always use Nero Burning ROM, which does work as a non-admin, but not by default; you must download and install Nero BurnRights (also works with Nero 6) which you can use to give non-admins CD burning rights.

sicRrh wrote:

Anyone have a "good" resource for which applications will be unusable to users running in the user group (non-admin, non-power user)?  I have seen that some default apps in XP will not run; such as writing files to a CD using the default XP methods.  Will windows update work as a non-admin, non-power user?

Thanks

Usually apps don't run because they try to write inside Program Files or some protected registry key. Running FileMon and RegMon can help you figure out what its doing and selectively set permissions to make the app work.

Windows update (the site) requires admin permissions but automatic updates should work fine if they're enabled.