AutoCAD (LT 2006) and non-admin users dont work :(

[tarquel]

Hi all

As my google-ing and best efforts seem to be more of a waste of time than a chocolate teapot, i thought I'd ask the audience on this one.

Has any of you good good people managed to get AutoCAD, of any description, to work with users that aren't administrators?

Despite the lovely "Designed for Windows XP" logo on the side, I think they kind of skipped a few things on that hehe

Nothing on the side of the box where the requirements are listed say users have to be Administrators, so I'm thinking there simply must be a way to do it.

I would seriously hope that 2008/9 etc will be better than this annoyance.

Have tried all the usual "give Everybody access on all the directories created etc"...

Basically, if the user is made a local admin on the machine, it works (although I think it reconfigures itself first) and if removed, double clicking the icon does literally nothing.

I've checked the MSI of the installer and its a per machine based install apparently.

Any of you good folk have any thoughts on this as we cant make people local admins on their desktops/laptops?

Cheers for any help
Nath.

[Michael]

I can think of two ways to solve the problem -

Start > Run > MMC > Local Users and Groups. Then add domain users. You can still hide the C:\ drive from My Computer.

Alternatively, look at Software Restriction Policies and put some exceptions in place. Probably C:\Program Files\Autocad (or wherever it installs) would be a good start.

[p858snake]

I believe the autodesk programs need access to their files that they create in "App Docs\Username", you can move the files to another location and then update the paths in programs so they much the new location.

[tarquel]

Hi guys... thanks for the replies...

Michael:

Start > Run > MMC > Local Users and Groups. Then add domain users. You can still hide the C:\ drive from My Computer.

Add the "domain users" group to what though?

Hiding the C drive isnt a issue... besides which, if the program is wrote to the ccorrect specifications, it wouldnt matter if the C drive is hidden hehe

Thanks for the point about Software Restriction Policies... had forgetten about that, although knowing what to allow fully is the issue. As i said, I've done all the obvious directories that I can think of so far...

Hi p858snake... Not quite following you here but the program works fine if you make the user a local admin... this has populated his Application Data folder & user registry hive with the data needed, but then goes back to not doing anything if you remove the user from the Local Administrators group.

Any other thoughts people or has no one got this to work?

Nath.

[mark]

did you give permissions to the relevant user hive sections? (you didn't say)

[tarquel]

Well if a user doesnt have permission to his own HKCU hive, i'd think AutoCAD is the least of our worries.

Incidentally, yes, he has full perms to his own hive from what i saw.

Nath.

[Michael]

Sorry tarquel, having a thick moment:

Start > Run > MMC > Local Users and Groups > Groups > Administrators. Then add domain users.

[tarquel]

Aye Michael... Had a feeling where you were going with this, but this will negate our security policy, or I'd have done this to sort the issue.

[mark]

Well if a user doesnt have permission to his own HKCU hive, i'd think AutoCAD is the least of our worries.

Incidentally, yes, he has full perms to his own hive from what i saw.

Nath.

Well dur! Obviously I didn't mean his own user hive. Apologies for adding the word 'user' when I didn't mean to. Pulling teeth comes to mind (as usual )


This guy wanted to install it for a limited user and apparently succeeded: http://www.appdeploy.com/messageboar...=1&key=&#16975


.

[tarquel]

Wish I knew what he meant by "dump and run"....

Nath.

[mark]

I think I've seen it done in schools. Pity the poor cleaners!


I would guess (, as he says! ), that he means he copies the install to the client and runs it from there?