Is CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA read-only for some users ?

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5 total messages Started by Kris Mon, 30 Jul 2007 11:04

#1539

Author: Kris
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 11:04

28 lines
2237 bytes

My application stores data that needs to be accessible for all users on 
the system. Each users must also be able to update this shared data.

For this purpose I'm use the CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA location (e.g. on XP 
this is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data). This 
works great for me. However, while googling I found several references 
where this folder is sometimes read-only.

MSDN shows me this:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms995853.aspx
"CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA: This folder should be used for application data 
that is not user specific. By default, this location is read-only for 
normal (non-admin, non-power) Users. If an application requires normal 
Users to have write access to an application specific subdirectory of 
CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA, then the application must explicitly modify the 
security on that sub-directory during application setup."

Strangely enough, I tried to reproduce this problem both on XP and Vista 
by using a non-admin user. But I never encountered a problem writing to 
this folder (even using Windows Explorer as limited user still allowed 
full write-access to CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA).

So, I was wondering if someone has any experience with write permission 
issues in CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA when dealing with different user accounts?

Thanks,

Kris

Re: Is CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA read-only for some users ?

#1540

Author: Remy Lebeau (TeamB)
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 17:13

14 lines
1409 bytes

"Kris" <test@test.com> wrote in message
news:46adc5ec$1@newsgroups.borland.com...

> For this purpose I'm use the CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA
> location. This works great for me. However, while googling I
> found several references where this folder is sometimes read-only.

The CSIDL... folder itself may be read-only, yes.  Don't try to write to the
folder directly.  You are supposed to append your own read/write subfolder
to it.


Gambit

Re: Is CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA read-only for some users ?

#1541

Author: Miguel Gimenez
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 11:17

20 lines
1861 bytes

Remy Lebeau (TeamB) wrote:
> "Kris" <test@test.com> wrote in message
> news:46adc5ec$1@newsgroups.borland.com...
> 
>> For this purpose I'm use the CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA
>> location. This works great for me. However, while googling I
>> found several references where this folder is sometimes read-only.
> 
> The CSIDL... folder itself may be read-only, yes.  Don't try to write to the
> folder directly.  You are supposed to append your own read/write subfolder
> to it.

How can I append the subfolders if I can't write to 
CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA? I was planning to do my own installer, who should 
create the "Company Name\Product Name\Version" folder tree, but now I'm 
in doubt if it can be done. Should the installer be executed by the 
administrator, or there is another trick?

Regards
Miguel Gimenez

Re: Is CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA read-only for some users ?

#1542

Author: Alan Bellingham
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 11:26

14 lines
1506 bytes

Miguel Gimenez <me@privacy.net> wrote:

>in doubt if it can be done. Should the installer be executed by the 
>administrator, or there is another trick?

That's the usual case. You may well need Administrator access to add new
folders to the Program Files folder anyway.

Once installed, few programs should then need Administrator access. 

Alan Bellingham
-- 
Team Browns
ACCU Conference 2008: 2-5 April 2008 - Oxford (probably), UK

Re: Is CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA read-only for some users ?

#1543

Author: Kris
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 17:04

25 lines
2193 bytes

Miguel Gimenez wrote:
> How can I append the subfolders if I can't write to 
> CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA? I was planning to do my own installer, who should 
> create the "Company Name\Product Name\Version" folder tree, but now I'm 
> in doubt if it can be done. Should the installer be executed by the 
> administrator, or there is another trick?
> 
> Regards
> Miguel Gimenez

Even though while googling I found several references to write 
permission issues with CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA I was unable to reproduce 
any problems when writing to this folder (both on Vista and XP I logged 
in as a limited user and had no problems creating folders and writing 
files in CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA).

Neverteless, to be absolutely sure this isn't going to be an issue I 
also modified my installer script (which requires admin priviliges since 
I need to write to \program files anyway) to modify the NTFS ACL (access 
control list) of the CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA subfolder so that everyone 
always has full read/write access to this subfolder. This should take 
care of any problems that otherwise still might arise. Better safe than 
sorry.

Kris

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