Installing unique programs for sep. users

[sarahbi]

I have recently purchased Windows XP, prof. version. My husband and I set up seperate user identities and were under the impression besides just desktop settings we could seperate out programs so we don't have to have eachother's programs in the start menu when we log on. But, every program we have installed shows up on both of our user profiles, I am obviously missing the boat on this simple task.... help?

 

[Rikku]

Hi Sarahbi,

I read your post with disbelief because I didn't think that XP would default to installing programs for all users....

I just put XP on my machine, so i went home to try it and whaddyaknow. It does just as you say!

I just wanted to reassure you that you're not missing anything - that's what it does! I'm sure there must be a way to fix it, I will certainly try to figure it out and post back here when I have more info.

 

[sarahbi]

Thank-you Rikku!

I am working on trying to figure it out as well. We'll find a way!

 

[Rikku]

No, I haven't really found an answer yet...

But I searched Microsoft's site for quite a while and found no documents on the details of XP's user profile system.

From what I've read i think that Windows XP, as a feature, installs all programs for all users. If you want, its up to you to go and rearrange everything.

I remember with 98 or 2000, if you installed, say, Office 2000 and you logged in as a different user, it wouldn't work. You had to install it under each profile. What a pain!!

But this is even worse!

 

[Rockn]

It should do it no problem if you change the settings correctly. In 98 there was an applet in control panel named passwords. You went in and clicked the profiles tab and you could select the way profiles worked for each user loggin on. I would assume they carried this feature over and from some of the promotional stuff they showed it could do exactly what you are asking for. Look for this setting and see what it says. They might have incorporated this into the network settings....XP XPerts please!!

 

[Rikku]

Rockn,

The problem is that we have user profiles enabled but if I install a program while logged in as me, it will appear in all other users' profiles!!

Isn't that crazy?? It doesn't make any sense, but that's what it does.

For instance, I installed ICQ in my profile yesterday and had it run ndetect in the systray.

Well, when another person logged in, they tried to connect to the internet and ICQ popped up asking them if they wanted to create a new user or whatever! ie. that ndetect program was running in their systray too!

Its all very strange.

 

[Rockn]

Depends if you are using local or roaming profiles.

 

[Rikku]

local I think - my machine is standalone, I don't know about Sarahbi's

 

[Brooks]

The installer program that is being used, is putting the icons in the all users profile. From what I can tell, this is by design since Microsoft is assuming that most people will either be the only one using the machine, or that if multiple people use the machine, they will still need access to the programs.

Some of the better install programs give the option of whether to install for everyone or just the current user. Some do not. We have one here at work, that is supposed to install for all users, but the installer is buggy and only puts out shortcuts in the current profile and since the people using this program don't have administrative access, we have to go and copy the settings over.

Windows 2000 also installs to all users unless the installer gives the option.

What Windows Xp will do, is to keep settings like toolbars, desktop backgrounds, screen savers, etc seperate from one another. Of course, if a program does not use the registry to store that info and instead uses a .ini file in a common location then the settings will not be seperate. A good case in point is the Opera Web Browser which uses .ini files to configure itself with and stores them in its own folder. You configure it for yourself, and the other users also will get that same configuration. Games also use this apporach a lot.


The reason that ndetect did that is that installed itself into either the all users startup menu or into HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.

 

[Rikku]

<sigh>

That's what I figured

well, Thank Brooks for confirming that for us!