Installation/Vista UAC Administration Prompting

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Charles
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Installation/Vista UAC Administration Prompting

#1 Post by Charles » Tue Aug 26, 2008 7:30 pm

Rather than continuing to hijacking another's thread, I'm posting this here.

I am in a position where I'm unwilling to install a program that requires administration privelleges, and I recognise there may be other people who are unable. I submit that requiring administrator rights to install a game, and subsequently requiring administrator rights to modify settings for said game is unintended and unneccessary, and thus a bug.

I realise others will not share this view.

For the record, I realise this may be an issue purely related to AGS, and cannot be resolved by the team here. Furthermore, I mention this problem because I have the utmost of respect for Chris and everyone else involved in making this game. I consider myself a fan and, as a fan, I want to contribute in the only way I can: by alerting the problems I see to those who can do something about it, as do many others here.

ulmont
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Re: Installation/Vista UAC Administration Prompting

#2 Post by ulmont » Tue Aug 26, 2008 7:42 pm

Charles wrote:I submit that requiring administrator rights to install a game, and subsequently requiring administrator rights to modify settings for said game is unintended and unneccessary, and thus a bug.
How can you "submit" that it was "unintended"?

Seems like that's something you could, at most, ask?

Charles
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Re: Installation/Vista UAC Administration Prompting

#3 Post by Charles » Tue Aug 26, 2008 7:49 pm

Ya got me there.

Was it intentional that only admins can change the game settings?

bcrt2000
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Re: Installation/Vista UAC Administration Prompting

#4 Post by bcrt2000 » Tue Aug 26, 2008 7:51 pm

Its how Vista works, only the administrator can give permission to install anything.

Anonymous Game Creator 2
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Re: Installation/Vista UAC Administration Prompting

#5 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Tue Aug 26, 2008 7:52 pm

Certainty... kindly email bill@microsoft.com and hopefully he'll fix it up pronto!

At least the version of AGS we're using doesn't have any such ability. Don't know about the latest version, though QFG2VGA's not compatible with that.

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Re: Installation/Vista UAC Administration Prompting

#6 Post by dosuser » Tue Aug 26, 2008 8:04 pm

Because the game installs to your Program Files folder it requres admin rights, since non-admin users cannot write to this folder.

Potentially the installer could be modified to install to My Documents or something and then wouldn't require admin privileges, but that would be very non-standard.

Because changing the game settings involves editing a file in the game directory (which is in Program Files), it also requires admin rights.

Charles
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Re: Installation/Vista UAC Administration Prompting

#7 Post by Charles » Tue Aug 26, 2008 8:04 pm

Anonymous Game Creator 2 wrote:At least the version of AGS we're using doesn't have any such ability. Don't know about the latest version, though QFG2VGA's not compatible with that.
Fair enough. Thank you.

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Re: Installation/Vista UAC Administration Prompting

#8 Post by ulmont » Tue Aug 26, 2008 8:07 pm

Anonymous Game Creator 2 wrote:At least the version of AGS we're using doesn't have any such ability. Don't know about the latest version, though QFG2VGA's not compatible with that.
Are your upgrades to AGS being fed back, so that people can now make games in the QFG style with stats and combat?

:eek

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Re: Installation/Vista UAC Administration Prompting

#9 Post by bcrt2000 » Tue Aug 26, 2008 8:15 pm

dosuser wrote:Potentially the installer could be modified to install to My Documents or something and then wouldn't require admin privileges, but that would be very non-standard.
Bingo. Windows 9x/2000/XP/Vista standard for installing games/apps is into Program Files.

Windows 9x/2000 standard for saving games is into Program Files

Windows XP standard for saving games is My Documents

Windows Vista standard for saving games is in Saved Games folder (I don't remember if this is directly in the My Documents folder or in the user folder)

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Re: Installation/Vista UAC Administration Prompting

#10 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Tue Aug 26, 2008 8:39 pm

Are your upgrades to AGS being fed back, so that people can now make games in the QFG style with stats and combat?
No, a large part of the code is based on formulas and such that are owned by Sierra/Vivendi, which we don't have permission to freely distribute.

A stats system in AGS is not difficult to make though, and someone who's familiar with the engine should not have too much trouble building one from scratch. It's time and motivation to finish that are probably bigger factors.

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