Partly solved (dirty hack): Running ICQ2001b as "User" in Windows 2000

[P.Adelt]

WARNING: If you don't understand things explained in here, be
*extremely* careful. You probably should *not* try it,
because there is a good chance to damage your Windows
installation. So be warned!

I was told yesterday that the newest version "2001b" of ICQ would offer
running it without being Administrator and without administrative user
permission as opposed to ICQ2000b that I never got to work in
this configuration.

Trying this on a sample PC running Windows 2000 (SP2, german) showed
ICQ2001b would install and run properly when installed by an
administrator (as expected). Trying to execute the same installed
files (icq.exe) as a normal user failed.
Talking back to my colleague we found out his non-admin-users are in
the "Power Users" group ("Hauptgruppe" in german). Mine only have
normal user privileges (the least authorized group offered by Win2K).

"Install user" means the user with administrative rights that was
used to install ICQ.
"Target user" means the "normal" user that does not have administrative
rights but should be able to run ICQ too.
All testing was done on german Windows, so the translations may
be broken!

Digging into this I found you need to do at least two things to get
target user to use ICQ:
1. Copy the registry subtree HKCU\Software\Mirabilis from the install
user's registry to the target user's registry.
To do this, log in as the installation user,
run REGEDIT and export the mentioned subtree to a file that the
target user can read. Log in as the target user and merge the
subtree into the users registry (by double-clicking the .reg-file).
2. (you need admin rights for this) Grant the target user one special
right. Run REGEDT32 and locate HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID. Go to
"Security -> Permissions -> Advanced" and "Add" the target user
and check only "Create Subkey". Set "Apply to:"
to "This key only" and press "OK -> OK -> OK".

Now ICQ should run when logged in as the target user. (At least mine
does.)

Side effects:
- SECURITY: I do not know what security effects are implied in this.
I'm not firm in Windows registry stuff and I don't know how this
additional permission will hurt security.
The only limit I could think of is that "Power Users" are granted
this right (among some others) too.
- INCONSISTENCY: Copying such settings as they appear in
HKCU\Software\Mirabilis from user to user is not a good idea at all.
These settings should be placed somewhere else, maybe HKLM. This
is a design bug (maybe it's even a feature that Mirabilis has
hidden very well?) because the default installation of ICQ places
it in HKCU.
- INCOMPLETE: ICQ tries to add itself to the default file context
menu that allows you to send something directly to another ICQ
user. This fails as normal user but it does not seem to be critical
for ICQ. If you want to play with that, add the same permission as
described above to the following keys:
HKCR\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
HKCR\Directory\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

Hoping it helps someone out there.

Philipp
[when replying be email replace adress with >padelt at geocities.com<]

[BS]

Philipp, thanks for the tips. I had 2001b installed in win2k server and
experienced the same problems.

Boudewijn

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