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Drop My Rights... Vista Security on XP!
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You are currently in Hardware, Internet, Networking, Comms and Security
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Sun Sep 17, 2006 5:18 am Reply and quote this post
I have reviewed DropMyRIghs, which is really amazing, and a little known tool from microsoft. Vista already has this feature built in, but you can get it for XP here: http://download.microsoft.com/downloa.../DropMyRights.msi

DropMyRights is just like the security in Vista, User Accoutn Control:
Quote:
User Account Control
Windows Vista makes it possible for organizations to deploy a more manageable and secure desktop in which administrators can run as standard users (formerly users) and still perform administrative tasks. Note: In early versions of Vista this technology was known as "User Account Protection."

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/security/uac.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/security/uacppr.mspx

Its been said before before about the importance of setting up and using "limited user" (non-administrator) accounts for everyday Windows users. But many users balk at the idea, complaining (in many cases rightfully so) that such-and-such program doesn't work or perform as well under a non-admin account. (By default, when you first install Windows XP, all of the active user accounts created are administrator accounts, meaning they have full rights to install, modify or delete any program, file or system process running on the computer.)

Among the easier tools is one provided by Microsoft: DropMyRights. (Weirdly enough, if you Google "DropMyRights," the first, and legitimate, result is from Microsoft.com but appears to be some jumbled, foreign language or perhaps a link to a phishing site.) Security Fix will show you how to modify the desktop icons you normally click on to access the Internet and your e-mail account so that they run under less-privileged user accounts, and thus are less prone to attack.

First off, download DropMyRights, but when you unzip the file and click on the executable file within (after scanning it with an anti-virus scanner of course), you'll want to take note of the directory where the program is installed.

Then go to the Windows desktop, right-click on it, select "New" and then "Shortcut." Then, in the box underneath the text that reads "Type the location of the item," type or browse for the directory where the "DropMyRights.exe" program was installed (mine was under C:\Documents and Settings\MyDocuments\MSDN\DropmyRights\dropmyrights.exe). Keep this windows open for the time being and don't click any more buttons on it; we'll come back to it in a moment.

At this point, you just need to know the location of each program you want to run under a non-administrator account, in order to create a clickable icon on the Windows desktop and/or the Windows taskbar that you can use to start the program in limited-user mode whenever you want. For example, if you want to set up Internet Explorer, enter the location of "iexplore.exe" directly after the text you already entered in the shortcut location window above. Using the example above, the text you would enter would be: C\:Documents and Settings\MyDocuments\MSDN\DropmyRights\dropmyrights.exe "c:\program files\internet explorer\iexplore.exe"). Then hit "next" and give your shortcut a name. If you're devising a shortcut for Internet Explorer, you might just call it "IE."

Now, right-click on the icon you just created and select "Properties." The first tab that comes up should be "Shortcut," and lower down on that window should be a tab that reads "Change Icon." Click on that tab and you can change its icon so that anyone who clicks on it will think it is the default icon for Internet Explorer. A window of graphical icons will come up next; drag the scroll bar to the right and you should see the familiar IE icon. Select it and hit "okay," and the shortcut you just created on desktop should change its icon accordingly.

If you're fiddling with a PC that multiple users work on, you might want to go a step further and change the behavior of the IE icon on your "quick launch" taskbar (the one usually sitting in the lower left corner of your screen). Right click on the familiar IE icon there and select "Properties" from the pull-down menu. Enter the same information you typed into the "target" field for your desktop IE limited-user icon (if you don't remember, go back to the desktop, right click on the icon you created, select "Properties," and then cut and paste the text in the "Target" field). After you're done, hit "okay," and you should be all set.

If you're still concerned that another user might accidentally evade your setup, click "Start", "Programs," and then either delete the Internet Explorer shortcut there by right clicking on it and selecting "delete," or rename that one as well using the same procedure described above.

If my instructions have left you lost or confused, Microsoft has published its own instructions on using this program (actually it's the same place where the pictures in this post come from, althought I find it rather amusing that the name of the directory Microsoft used as an example here is "warez," a slang term for pirated software.).


Get DropMyRights here: http://download.microsoft.com/downloa.../DropMyRights.msi

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