Re: SemiOT: problem with XP Service pack 3 followup.

On Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:59:19 -0300, Clark F Morris
<cfmpublic@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

A month or so ago I applied Service Pack 3 to Windowns XP home from a
download and started getting a message that Automatic Updates was
turned off. I tried to change the Automatic Updates setting but it
was locked (all of the choice buttons were greyed out). I think I got
the message that I didn't have the authority which was peculiar since
I was logged on to the account with administrator privileges. This
was annoying but since I normally apply the updates and don't use
automatic update, I ignored the problem hoping a subsequent update
would cure it. On Wednesday, I downloaded and tried to apply the
latest upgrade to Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite which normally is
a very simple exercise. The upgrade didn't work because I did not
have the administrator privilege for installing the True Vector
component. After making various attempts and checking the Zone Alarm
site, I went to the Microsoft site. There I found that for at least
some people Service Pack 3 fouls up some entries in the registry and
there is a fix. I have an e-mail into Microsoft right now verifying
that the fix only restores full administrator privileges to the
administrator logons and not the user logons and that the download
program mentioned also works on XP home as well as PRO.

I suspect the simplest way to tell whether you have the problem is to
logon on to an account with administrator privileges and try to change
the Automatic Updates setting. If you can't change it, DON'T try to
install any systems software (Microsoft updates seem to work) like
Zone Alarm. Go to www.microsoft.com and from support go to the page
for Service Pack 3. You will find that there is free e-mail, chat AND
toll-free free support in North America for Service Pack 3 issues.
Apparently there have been a number of them.

Before those of us who are in the mainframe environment feel
completely smug, there are PTF's and hiper alerts for a reason. While
I haven't read about anything like the DF/EF catalog problems that I
heard about or DFP PE chain problems that I experienced, no vendor is
free of major glitches. Given that Microsoft fixes and updates for
home users are to be installed by people who are not system
programmers or systems administrators, it is in a sense amazing to me
that the process works as well as it does. I might add that I read
the KB letters for all of the fixes I apply and have found them useful
in understanding why I am putting on the fix.

I'm sending this because for many of us, Windows XP is the operating
system of choice or affliction.

The problem with Automatic Updates was cured by deleting some Registry
entries (since Microsoft has FREE support for Service Pack 3 problems
check with them since there may be a different approach now) as
recommended by e-mail support. This did not cure the install problem
which is caused by the handling of administrator accounts in at least
the XP home version. Apparently the settings for a logon are stored
in a folder related to the logon in Documents and Settings. The
setting for Owner (default user on startup) is "administrator". If a
limited user-id is created, its setting is "user". If any other
administrator accounts are created, their settings are "administrator
user". If the Owner account is ever changed to be a limiter user,
when it is changed back to administrator it also has the setting
"administrator user". The scenario on my desktop computer was that we
got the computer 4 years ago and ran it as a single user computer with
my wife as the primary user. In this discussion, I will use the names
Charlie, Joan and Homefire for the user-ids for modest security by
obscurity. We then got a laptop and for security configured it with
limited users Charlie and Joan. We also renamed the 'Owner' user-id
to Homefire. We then did the same thing to the desktop. My wife
found it a pain not to have her settings yet did not want to run with
administrator privileges so I made user-id Joan an administrator and
renamed it Homefire2. Then I logged on to Homefire2 and renamed
Homefire to Joan. All was well until Microsoft tightened things in
Service Pack 3 and the latest version of Zone Alarm wouldn't install
because Homefire2 wasn't a full administrator. Microsoft provided the
solution by having me logon in safe mode to the user-id Administrator
and change the permission settings for the appropriate ID. The
process also revealed that when a user-id is renamed, the associated
folder is not. Thus on the desktop the related folder for Charlie is
Charlie, the folder for Joan is Owner, and the folder for Homefire2 is
Joan. I have recommended they change this in Windows 7 but I can see
real problems with changing the peculiar behavior in existing running
systems.

I have followed up with a reply to all of the people at Microsoft
involved with getting my system working again with my thanks and
suggestions for software change. I also let support at Zone Alarm
know about the resolution and possible action they could take.

The permission "administrator user" did not cause a problem prior to
Service Pack 3 and does not cause one in all software installs. A
better fix may be available in the future. The bottom line is that at
least for XP Home at Service Pack 3, where the current user-id with
administrator privileges is NOT Owner (or a rename of Owner), the
privilege expected by some software of "administrator" will not be
seen. You can cause this problem on computer that currently doesn't
have a problem by change who the administrator is. You also can cause
later confusion by renaming User-ids.

Clark Morris
.

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