question about user accounts in Vista

Is it possible to install a program so that it only affects one user?

Specifically, I would like to install the AOL client (my wife just can't let go of it) on one user account, but for obvious reasons (again, it's the AOL client!) I would prefer that the program not take over my entire machine. Indeed, if possible, I would prefer that the AOL program not even be visible in my user account, only hers.

I don't know if this is possible or not. Any guidance will be appreciated. Thanks.

 

The answer to that quesiton is a definite maybe....

The issue really depends on the software and what drives it and in this case, unfortunately, AOL is like a virus in this regard.

Like XP, Vista uses a user profile system that generates what the user sees in several ways.

Open up MY COMPUTER and your local disk drive and you will see a folder called USERS, inside that you will see a fodler named after your profile name(s) (you and your wife) as well as a public folder. Depending on your system settings, you may also see DEFAULT USER and ALL USER PROFILE folders

The DEFAULT USER folder is a default profile for any profile that is created from this moment on...if you already have profiles, making changes here does nothing to existing profiles.

The more interesting "folder" is the All Users folder--and I say "folder" because it really isn't a folder anymore in Vista

In XP, if you placed a shortcut to a program in c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop, that shortcut would appear on every users desktop (in your case, your wife and yours).

In VISTA, it is not a folder anymore, but a virtual folder that simple refers to another place. In this case, the ALL USERS virtual folder refers to (points at) a folder called "c:\program data"--but hold on, it gets better!

While some of c:\programdata does what you might expect (it aggregates "files" from all users (as yoiu might expect since the ALL USERS profile pointed here), some of it turns back around and points back toward the USERS folder, specifically, the PUBLIC profile.

So, to get to all users, you point from c:\users\ALL USERS to c:\programdata to c:\users\public

Some serious drinking went on at the Microsoft campus the night they came up with this....I can hear them giggling now.

Anyway, why is this important?

Let's say you install program X on your computer. A smart installer will ask you "Do you want to install this for everyone or just this user? Choose appropriately and it puts things where you want.

Most programs will simply assume every user, though, and put thing (ultimately) in the c:\users\public folder, so everyone gets access.

So, to ensure a program ends up only on your wife's profile. you need to physically copy the short cuts from
c:\users\public\desktop
to
c:\users\wife\desktop

If the program installs a shortcut in the START MENU for all users, it is slightly different than listed above, the concept of Virtual folders pointin to places that are difficult to figure out continues

In this case. you would need to move a shortcut from c:\programdata\microsoft\windows\start menu
to
c:\users\wife\start menu

OK--now, there are two other issues to be concerned about--particularly for a program like AOLs client that sits in the system tray (ie, startup programs that start at, well, er, startup).

I do not have AOL on my machine--indeed, you could not pay me enough to put it on my machine--but it installs in several ways. Since I don't have it installed, I cannot tell you for certain how it works, but here is a rough idea.


In addition to simply starting up as a "regular" program, AOL also installs several services that are "required" for it to run. These are likely created in the registry in several places in the subsection hklm (hkey local machine).

Also, when your wife's profile is loaded, there will be references to programs in the registry section hkcu (hkey current user).

There may even be settings in the hkcu .default subkey, which will doom every profile that comes after to having to look at that AOL crap.

There may even be a couple of other methods used by AOL not unlike those found in the worst malware, keyloggers, rootkeys and trojan horses.

I would need to have AOL installed to tell you for certain how this is done, but your plan of attack would be to log in as you and remove any references to AOL in your registry profile settings (after you are logged in, your profile is loaded as hkcu--your wife's will be in hkey-users under some strange looking subfolder like s-1-5-14, or somesuch, so you will not impact her)

The bigger issue is hklm, which is set for the entire machine.

Sometimes, there are corresponding keys in the user profile in the registry to the local machine profile in the registry, and sometimes there not. If you can, you move/copy these to her hkcu hive (when she is loaded) and remove them from local machine, and sometimes you cannot.

So, the short answer:

You can do this with a lot of programs, but with AOL, which infests...er, integrates itself so deeply into the machine, it can be very tricky and maybe even impossible to ensure that NOTHING AOL is running in your profile.

You can probably make it so that MOST of AOL (the stuff you see) is not there, but the underlying services will be more diffiicult.....

Wooo, I'm tired of typing now...

 

That's what I was afraid of, but thanks for taking the time and offering such a detailed answer. I really appreciate it, and it's users like you who keep me coming back to this forum.

I'll tinker, but I don't expect to fully get the outcome I want. I was really hoping Vista's UAC would allow true differentiation between programs--for this user, but not that one--but I'm not surprised that we were all disappointed.

If anyone else has two cents to throw in, I'd welcome that as well. And if I happen to stumble onto a silver bullet solution (unlikely) I promise to share it here.

 

once again, since I don't have AOL, I can only speculate--I think it can be done with the possible exception of one service that is just eluding me for a moment, but not having a machine with AOL on it, it is difficult to say. And depending on how it starts, even that one maybe

shrug