NT service version 25

[James Heinrich]

Originally Posted by Freightyard

a)Where/how did you install?
b)Program Files?
c)Have you disabled UAC?
d)Where did you locate the data files?
e)Are you running as Administrator or lower privilege accounts?

a)Unzipped to "D:\Prime95"
b)No. ("D:\Prime95")
c)Yes. (how can you use Vista with that stupid thing enabled? )
d)"D:\Prime95"
e)Administrator-class

[Freightyard]

Originally Posted by James Heinrich

a)Unzipped to "D:\Prime95"
b)No. ("D:\Prime95")
c)Yes. (how can you use Vista with that stupid thing enabled? )
d)"D:\Prime95"
e)Administrator-class

LOL! I decided to leave UAC on for a while to see if I can live with it. It's not horrendous for most things, unless you're messing in Control Panel or copying to Program Files. But I may change my mind...

I like the idea of running programs in Program Files (where they belong) only to discover new security features in Vista that block writes to the data files (as it should be, since data has no business in the Programs directory).

Using the service version, I haven't had the access problem with writes to the data files--in fact, I don't know of a way to place the data files elsewhere with the service. Does it accepts any command line switches? The service probably runs under a higher privileged account.

[mdettweiler]

Originally Posted by Freightyard

The service probably runs under a higher privileged account.

Yes, it does--it runs under the "LOCAL SYSTEM" account (or maybe it's called "LOCAL SERVICE", I'm not sure). This account automatically has all administrator privileges.

[Freightyard]

Originally Posted by mdettweiler

Yes, it does--it runs under the "LOCAL SYSTEM" account (or maybe it's called "LOCAL SERVICE", I'm not sure). This account automatically has all administrator privileges.

Right. Yes. But even when logged-in as Administrator on the desktop, Prime95 ran as an application doesn't have write privilege to the Program Files directory. I understand that Vista doesn't really run programs with Administrator privilege unless you start it explicitly as "Run as Administrator". This may be different for services, however---or, should I say, obviously.

[mdettweiler]

Originally Posted by Freightyard

Right. Yes. But even when logged-in as Administrator on the desktop, Prime95 ran as an application doesn't have write privilege to the Program Files directory. I understand that Vista doesn't really run programs with Administrator privilege unless you start it explicitly as "Run as Administrator". This may be different for services, however---or, should I say, obviously.

Well, that's because Vista, when running a "normal" Administrator user account, actually runs it as a "standard user" account, i.e. no admin privileges. It only gives admin privileges when you click "Run as Administrator". The Local System account, however, has no such UAC restrictions--it runs as administrator no matter what. Hence all applications ran through that account, such as a Prime95 service, would have full administrator access, which would include writing to Program Files. That's why NTPrime seems to be working for everyone here when run in Program Files, while regular Prime95 does not.

But then, all this got me wondering...if NTPrime can be installed and run as a service with no problem on Vista, how come people have so much trouble getting regular Prime95's "run at bootup" option to become available even if it's specifically run as administrator?

[S485122]

Originally Posted by mdettweiler

But then, all this got me wondering...if NTPrime can be installed and run as a service with no problem on Vista, how come people have so much trouble getting regular Prime95's "run at bootup" option to become available even if it's specifically run as administrator?

Because Vista does not allow services to interact with the desktop : a service ? => no GUI

I think one could run Prime95 as a service, but then you must specify an account and a password. I think that to access the GUI one would have to be logged in as that user or have to provide the right credentials. Since I am not used by Vista at home, I can not experiment.

Jacob

[Freightyard]

Originally Posted by mdettweiler

...if NTPrime can be installed and run as a service with no problem on Vista, how come people have so much trouble getting regular Prime95's "run at bootup" option to become available even if it's specifically run as administrator?

I did get start at login to work, but it doesn't remember the command line switch to put the data files elsewhere, so it always started as a new install. Also, if the data was stored in Program Files, there might be trouble starting automatically as writes are denied. I haven't played with it that much.

Now, I can't get rid of the auto-start! Even with Sysinternals' Autoruns I couldn't locate where Prime95 hides it's autostart entry. Really, I have not spent too much time on it, but Autoruns always finds everything... I thought.