Starspell 2001

[kaphc]

Have been asked by the headteacher to get Starspell 2001 working on Windows XP. It's installed on all the PCs in in the ICT Suite already, but curiously some of them work fine (albeit asking for a CD-Rom) whereas others come up with an "Error 3051 cannot find file c:\starspell\users\users.mdb".

 

I'm logging onto all the PCs with the same generic "pupil" login and the users definitely have access to the users.mdb file, so I can't understand why this message is being thrown up.

 

Being such an old version, there's no support available from the manufacturer really now, so just wondering if anyone had come across this in situ and knew of any solutions?

[K.C.Leblanc]

What level of access do students have to the users.mdb files. I would expect they'll need write access or even full control.

[themightymrp]

Do you have any policies in place which are preventing access to the local C: drive?

[kaphc]

Yeah I did wonder about group policies, cos it's a new site to me, and I haven't had chance to go through all the policies set up by my predecessor yet.

 

Only thing is, all the machines are in the ICT suite, so apply the same group policy and I'm logging in with the same user account so I can't figure out why it would work on some but not others.

 

It must be something to do with access to the C:\drive though. I'm off-site from there until next week now but will take a look then.

[themightymrp]

Just found this for you:

 

Workaround to Enable Starspell 2001 to Run on a RM Window Box for Windows XP

 

Don't know if you run RM or not but either way, you need to make sure the c:\starspell folder has full permissions for pupils accounts to read/write etc. That should sort you out

[kaphc]

On the PCs where it didn't work when logged in as a pupil, it did when when logged in with Adminstrator rights. Have looked at this further and it appears that the hard drives of the PCs all have shares set up on them, but they have not all been set up in the same way with the same rights!

 

That explains the disparity from PC to PC which was puzzling me anyway. One machine has been sorted, and just going round and doing the others too!

 

Thanks for the useful comments and pointers.

[Davit2005]

You can do folder permissions on the C drive from the server side with 2003 policies.

 

Open the Workstation policy, Browse to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > File System

 

Right click in the Object Name and select Add file. Navigate to the folder and then select the User Group that needs the required access.