What did I do wrong?

[glennc]

Hello,
Since being on this forum I've learned a lot. So one thing I did was create a non-administrative account to run from. I installed in the user account. I copied the setting from the administrator on the TBird setup. It recently updated to 3.14 and the admin account is fine. The user account still says load update to 3.14 even though I allowed it to do so in the user account twice. What did I do or miss? Thanks for any help.
glennc

 

[JDobbsy1987]

What have you created the non-administrative account for if you don't mind me asking?

In most cases, home users would have their account set as an administrator otherwise you will hit brick walls when trying to install/update software or access areas of the c:\ drive.

Regards,
JDobbsy1987

 

[richc46]

What have you created the non-administrative account for if you don't mind me asking?

In most cases, home users would have their account set as an administrator otherwise you will hit brick walls when trying to install/update software or access areas of the c:\ drive.

Regards,
JDobbsy1987

I may have been the one to give the advice about the second account. It is for protection. In a standard account if you encounter a virus or malware the only changes that can be made are glimited by the ability of the account. You will find that after a short period of time the adminstrator account is not necessary for every day computing. I cant remember the last time I had to resort to my Adminstrtor account.
The use of this method is employed by many seasoned members of the forum and is, actually, where I learned about it. Some may disagree, but better safe then sorry.

 

[JDobbsy1987]

I may have been the one to give the advice about the second account. It is for protection. In a standard account if you encounter a virus or malware the only chantes that can be made are limited by the ability of the account. You will find that after a short period of time the adminstrator account is not necessary for every day computing. I cant remember the last time I had to resort to my Adminstrtor account.
The use of this method is employed by many seasoned members of the forum and is, actually, where I learned about it. Some may disagree, but better safe then sorry.

Ah Ok...

Fair enough richc46

I have always used an account with administrative rights (i am always messing round with things that a standard account doesnt like )

And although i do stick with the administrator rights account i also agree with "better safe than sorry" moto.

 

[CarlTR6]

Good post, Rich, and right on target. I tried to rep you but - you know the drill.

 

[gregrocker]

I would personally delete the new account and run the way Win7 intends most owners to run when they set up their new install.

Creating a new account without Admin privileges is for restricting what other Users of your computer can do. If you don't trust yourself, then perhaps you should consider it.

Neither of these are the hidden Administrator account which some of us enable to run uninhibited.

I am sorry, Rich, if I miss your point in recommending this but perhaps a reference would help.

 

[Jacee]

I don't think I've logged into the Admin account since I first made it...

 

[gregrocker]

I don't think I've logged into the Admin account since I first made it...

Jacee are you referring to the hidden Admin account, or the quasi-Admin account which is set up by Win7 for owners during install?

My understanding is that it is set up this way purposefully to allow quasi-Admin functioning while still under UAC.

Subsequent User Accounts set up by owner for others are then recommended to be Standard unless it is another owner-level user.

I have not read citations that security concerns require owners themselves to safely run under Standard account. But if anyone should know, it is you.

 

[JDobbsy1987]

I don't think I've logged into the Admin account since I first made it...

Jacee are you referring to the hidden Admin account, or the quasi-Admin account which is set up for owners during install?

This is the account i use, the one created during setup, not the hidden 'Administrator' account.

 

[Jacee]

Hidden Admin account ...

 

[CarlTR6]

Like Jacee, I have only logged into it once since I "unhid it"

 

[glennc]

Well Gentlemen,
A healthy discussion on this topic. Interesting.
JDobbsy1987 I did it for the reason richc46 stated, I have done so one and off since using multi-account software. I have read many times that it is safer for the reasons richc46 pointed out. I know it is a bit more of a pain. But I like safe, if 5 is right, 6 is better!
In reference to the original question, does anyone have any ideas, you can tell how often I've followed the advice as I've forgotten quite a bit about administering other accounts. Thanks.
glennc

 

[Keiichi25]

Well, what I have done is created another quasi-administrator account to be the 'fall back' account and only log into it when I need to. I kept the Super Admin Account the way Windows left it, which is hidden. I did that on both my systems mostly because I don't want to futz around trying to find a way to get onto the computer when the primary account is messed with and all I have to do is get onto another account that is clean and in safe mode.

 

[Barman58]

I assume that by allowing the update in the user account you mean that you elevated when prompted for credentials (asked to provide the admin password)?

I have found that it is sometimes better to actually elevate the actual application before the update check is performed. Right click Thunderbird.exe and run as administrator - once the app is running do a manual update check and follow through the procedure.

This is more often than not a case of the app not following the precise programming structures set out by Microsoft, rather than a problem with windows.

I have also resorted to starting an elevated Explorer.exe and then running the app from this explorer, to solve this type of issue

 

[glennc]

I assume that by allowing the update in the user account you mean that you elevated when prompted for credentials (asked to provide the admin password)?

I have found that it is sometimes better to actually elevate the actual application before the update check is performed. Right click Thunderbird.exe and run as administrator - once the app is running do a manual update check and follow through the procedure.

This is more often than not a case of the app not following the precise programming structures set out by Microsoft, rather than a problem with windows.

I have also resorted to starting an elevated Explorer.exe and then running the app from this explorer, to solve this type of issue

Hello Barman58,
Thanks for the information. Unfortunately due to a difference in skill levels, I am not completely sure of what you said. I installed and got the install admin privileges.
I created a user account with normal low privileges. If I understand you right, your first suggestion is to make T-bird in the compatibility section to run as administrator, as a possible solution. The two separate T-birds run separately in that they download the messages as individual programs. Will running it as admin lets see the word, screw up this arrangement?
Secondly I didn't understand your other suggestion well enough to pretend to know what you said. Thanks for your time and help.
glennc

 

[Keiichi25]

I assume that by allowing the update in the user account you mean that you elevated when prompted for credentials (asked to provide the admin password)?

I have found that it is sometimes better to actually elevate the actual application before the update check is performed. Right click Thunderbird.exe and run as administrator - once the app is running do a manual update check and follow through the procedure.

This is more often than not a case of the app not following the precise programming structures set out by Microsoft, rather than a problem with windows.

I have also resorted to starting an elevated Explorer.exe and then running the app from this explorer, to solve this type of issue

Hello Barman58,
Thanks for the information. Unfortunately due to a difference in skill levels, I am not completely sure of what you said. I installed and got the install admin privileges.
I created a user account with normal low privileges. If I understand you right, your first suggestion is to make T-bird in the compatibility section to run as administrator, as a possible solution. The two separate T-birds run separately in that they download the messages as individual programs. Will running it as admin lets see the word, screw up this arrangement?
Secondly I didn't understand your other suggestion well enough to pretend to know what you said. Thanks for your time and help.
glennc

I believe he stated that if you right click on the application, the context menu comes up. You might get a 'fourth' option from the top that says 'Run as Administrator'. See if that works.

 

[Barman58]

As stated above - this should be only needed as a one off action for the actual update to the thunderbird software The problem that I have found is that the elevation that you get from the prompt only elevates for the action that caused it sometimes there is a need for elevation for secondary processes to complete an upgrade, which elevating the whole application can avoid.

The second option I suggested is that the file manager in windows is actually the application "Explorer.exe" and in really stubborn cases elevating this process itself can prevent potential issues with some applications or operations.

Neither of these actions is intended to be a permanent change to the way you run Thunderbird, but of course you should realise that whilst in an elevated state any application has the potential to do more "damage" that in the normal state. In particular I would always advise a re boot of the application or in the case of Explorer.exe, Windows itself after any work is complete.

----

With regard to the Admin / Standard user question I have always run as a standard user and logged into and administrator account, or used run as... as required. That is until Vista and now win7 as I find that the UAC system does as it was designed to do and automates the process I have used since early days of Windows NT, through Win200 and XP.
All other users on any shared system I install / maintain are of course standard users

 

[glennc]

Hello Barmann58,
Think you got it. I went to properties in T-bird in the user account. The run as administrator and other options were greyed out. I hit the change settings for all users and was prompted for admin password. When I checked for the update, it was already installed. I reversed the process to get it back to user level privilege. You seem to have hit the proverbial nail on the head. Thank you, Sir.
glennc