Modifying the Windows XP Registry

I have installed a program as the local machine administrator, as
that's the only user that it installs correctly with. I now need this
program to work with any user that logs on to the machine.

The trouble that I have is that this machine has been created from a
base image from the central IT department that is policied up to the
eyeballs.

This means that on loading the program that there are certain files
that are set in the registry for it to retrieve from the
Administrator's profile.

I could, and have, modified the registry key to have these files
accessed from the All Users profile in the Run Once key. This
required importing a modified registry into the users profile on
logon. This gave me the problem that it would prompt if I wanted to
write the registry changes when the user logged on and then prompt
again that the changes were made. Is there a way to stop this?

I would also like to know if there is a way that I can re-write the
registry entry so that it will simply access the files for the user
who logs on. In other words I would like it to read ."C:\Documents
and Settings\"current logged on user"\Application
Data................" Instead of "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users
\Application Data................" as it does at the moment. How do I
change it so that it puts the current username in the path?

 

Try adding the Domain Users domain group to the local Power Users group.

 

famous bad ideas of our time:
1. keep fishing until there are no more fish left.
2. run all programs as root.

 

Indeed.

Just as well Power Users is that half-way-house, eh? Normally, it'd be
"Just the users you want", but if they ALL need access to that app...

 

i'm going to show you the tip of the cluestick:

chown :users myspecialprogram
chmod g+x myspecialprogram

don't make me show you the whole length of it.

 

Don't worry - it's a cluestick I recognise, and often wield.

If only Windows was that straightforward...

 

Snip

You can open any exported registry key using a text editor eg
wordpad.

Use the %username% variable as your parameter eg C:\Documents and
Settings\%username%\Application Data and it will use the application
data folder for the currently logged on user.

Hope this helps.