Windows XP, Games, and Administrator Privileges?

An anonymous reader asks: "I manage my kids' computer, running Windows XP Professional, with an iron fist. They have limited access rights as I do not want them accidentally deleting the wrong file or downloading trojan software. However, software products, particularly games, fight my user management schemes at every turn. Each user on the computer is member of the 'Gamers' group. This group has full access to the games directory, the place I install all of the game software. I did this since games often need to update configuration files or write save files. Despite these changes, I still run into problems. Our latest two games, Age of Mythology and Battlefield 1942, require administrator privileges irrespective of the file privileges. I have not been able to overcome the problem and it seems, based on Googling, that others are in the same boat. Fellow Slashdot readers, what have you done to overcome this problem?"

Re:Check your ACLs

[curious.corn]

Good answer but it makes me wonder... how is this weeding trough the registry simpler than unix administration? It's no wonder Microsoft calls it the Registry Hive... it's a Hornet Nest not much different than /etc
Sorry for the flamebait, it's just something that crossed my mind reading your comment.

No Full Access

[Shihar]

I understand the sentiment that people think you should just teach them to not do stupid things and give them full access. While that is nice in theory, it is hard to teach children, especially younger children the important lessons without burning through a few computers. Unfortunately, the brighter they are, the more likely they are to break something. On occasion I head home and every time I do I have to fix two machines FILLED with Trojan programs and spyware. I educate, but there is only so much I can do. Kids are stupid and can be tricked, pure and simple. If you have a shared computer that does serious work, then it means constantly fighting the crap that gets on just to keep important things running. If someone could answer this question, I would appreciate so I don't have to constantly be battling to keep these computers working.

The best solution of course is to get them their own computer to use and destroy. This is fine if your kid just wants to beat around the Internet as you can buy a cheap POS computer for pocket change these days. However, if you have a young aspiring gamer it becomes much more difficult, as a gamer needs something with power behind it. Dropping a couple thousand dollars just for a kid to have his own computer no one else uses is a rather expensive proposition.

What I would REALLY like answered is if there is a way on an XP machine to keep Trojans and spyware programs out. Yes, I know adaware and spybot can clean this stuff, but I have found that most of the time it is far too late and the damage is done. Does anyone have any good suggestions for keepings this crap off in the first place?

Re:Same problem with my kids - different solution

[PainKilleR-CE]

Rather than rush to fix it, I spent a week doing nothing but said I "was doing research into how to fix the problem." The 1 week without games was sufficiently traumatic that there's been no problem since.

This is actually what drove me to learn how to do an OS reinstall. As time went on, each time Windows ate itself, my dad would take longer and longer to get around to fixing it. Eventually, I got sick of waiting and did it myself. Within about two months I had him in complete understanding of the beauty of keeping data and OS on seperate drives, and now, many years later, my dad calls me when he wants information on how to do something or advice on new hardware.

The real reason admin access is required...

[DiSKiLLeR]

I have found this to be the case, too. I didn't want my gf's son (an 8 year old) having admin access on my XP machine, but half the damn games required admin access.

This required rightclicking on the game's shortcut, selecting 'run as' and calling me over to type in my admin password... several times a day! )(#@()$*@#()$&@#$@#

Its not that programs want to write to the registry, or system files, or anything else.

It simply seems to be the cd copy protection... most games have various types of cd copy protection (i dunno, daemon tools can emulate most of them when it mounts iso's, but anyway). It seems the games require admin access to perform their little sneaky copy protection checks on the CD...

Personally i think this is a real pain in the damn ass (why do we need the CD in there anyway! The game is already installed FFS) and now we require to give all kids admin access on XP machines just to play games! Its a damn nightmare.

No wonder we hate software manufactureres for all their sneaky copy protection, serial keys, product activation, and now needing admin access to run anything.... *sighs*

I'm glad i bought my titanium powerbook. And last week i bought a used G4 cube. Forget windows....

D.

Re:Dont Let Them build a computer

[KDan]

B: So don't let them mess with the inside of the computer until they have enough pocket money stashed up to pay for it themselves (or out of their future pocket money)... Simple enough. Duh.

As for A, similarly: "Sure, you can have it. I'll pay for half of it. You pay for the other half." Blang, two lessons in one - IT literacy AND value of money.

Daniel