Theme Hospital problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Envo
  • Start date Start date
E

Envo

Hi

Running WinXPHome SP2.

Have Theme Hospital loaded to C:\Program Files\Bullfrog\Hospital, with
Shortcuts on various desktops.

Game runs OK with all users, but only users with Administrator rights can
save games. Using 95 or 98 Compatibility Modes doesn't alter situation.

Anyone have any ideas? My kids (limited users) would be grateful!

TIA

Envo
 
Have Theme Hospital loaded to C:\Program Files\Bullfrog\Hospital, with
Shortcuts on various desktops.

Game runs OK with all users, but only users with Administrator rights can
save games. Using 95 or 98 Compatibility Modes doesn't alter situation.

Anyone have any ideas? My kids (limited users) would be grateful!
Click to expand...

This is likely a limitation of the game itself... Back when it was made
everyone had admin rights on Windows. There's no solution as such only a
work-around, the one below by Jimmy S.

Basically what this will do is enable them to run the game as an admin
user - but prevent them from actually logging on as an admin.

How to Create a Secure Admin Account for use with the Run As... Command

1. Click Start / Control Panel / User Accounts / Create a New Account /
Name the Account: "able2play" (without quotes) / Next Pick:
"Computer-Administrator" & Click "Create Account";

2. Click on your new able2play account and Create a Password for it;

3. When your limited user wants to play a game that requires Administrator
privileges they can Right-Click the shortcut to that game / Click Run As...
/ "The Following User": able2play and enter the password.

Steps 4 and 5 are optional, and are to prevent a user from logging on to the
computer as an administrator using the able2play account and password:

4. Remove "able2play" from the Welcome screen: Save and run my registry
patch which will add able2play to the hidden user list in your Windows XP
registry:
able2play.reg (Save and then Open).
or
* To avoid the above patch, run regedt32, browse to
[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList]Click Edit / New / Dword
value / ValueName: able2play / Value Data: 0 (hex)

5. This step will force the able2play account to logoff if anyone logs on
with it. What I do is add a shortcut to the windows logoff routine into the
RUN key of the able2play registry. Again, I made a registry patch to
simplify this process:

5a. <ONLY RUN THIS PATCH USING THE ABLE2PLAY ACCOUNT> Click and Save this
patch to the Local Disk (C:) Drive DO NOT OPEN IT
(http://windows.dasmirnov.net/downloads/OnlyRunUsingAble2PlayAccount.reg)


5b. Click Start / Log off / Click a blank area on the right side of the
Welcome screen, and then press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to logon the able2play
account. Now, double click the patch from step 5a, install it, delete it,
and then Logoff.
or
* To avoid using the registry patch, click Start / Run / regedt32 /
browse to: [HKCU\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] and Click
Edit / New / String value / ValueName: logoff / Value data: logoff REMEMBER:
Only create this auto logoff while logged on as able2play!


--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
http://www.dasmirnov.net/
http://windows.dasmirnov.net/ Windows XP Resource Site.

*Replace nospam with smirnov to reply by e-mail*
 
Try checking the security permissions on the game directory. It's quite
possible that they do not have write access, IIRC only administrators
do by default.

Paul said:
Have Theme Hospital loaded to C:\Program Files\Bullfrog\Hospital, with
Shortcuts on various desktops.

Game runs OK with all users, but only users with Administrator rights can
save games. Using 95 or 98 Compatibility Modes doesn't alter situation.

Anyone have any ideas? My kids (limited users) would be grateful!
Click to expand...

This is likely a limitation of the game itself... Back when it was made
everyone had admin rights on Windows. There's no solution as such only a
work-around, the one below by Jimmy S.

Basically what this will do is enable them to run the game as an admin
user - but prevent them from actually logging on as an admin.

How to Create a Secure Admin Account for use with the Run As... Command

1. Click Start / Control Panel / User Accounts / Create a New Account /
Name the Account: "able2play" (without quotes) / Next Pick:
"Computer-Administrator" & Click "Create Account";

2. Click on your new able2play account and Create a Password for it;

3. When your limited user wants to play a game that requires Administrator
privileges they can Right-Click the shortcut to that game / Click Run As...
/ "The Following User": able2play and enter the password.

Steps 4 and 5 are optional, and are to prevent a user from logging on to the
computer as an administrator using the able2play account and password:

4. Remove "able2play" from the Welcome screen: Save and run my registry
patch which will add able2play to the hidden user list in your Windows XP
registry:
able2play.reg (Save and then Open).
or
* To avoid the above patch, run regedt32, browse to
[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList]Click Edit / New / Dword
value / ValueName: able2play / Value Data: 0 (hex)

5. This step will force the able2play account to logoff if anyone logs on
with it. What I do is add a shortcut to the windows logoff routine into the
RUN key of the able2play registry. Again, I made a registry patch to
Click to expand...
simplify this process:

5a. <ONLY RUN THIS PATCH USING THE ABLE2PLAY ACCOUNT> Click and Save this
patch to the Local Disk (C:) Drive DO NOT OPEN IT
(http://windows.dasmirnov.net/downloads/OnlyRunUsingAble2PlayAccount.reg)


5b. Click Start / Log off / Click a blank area on the right side of the
Welcome screen, and then press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to logon the able2play
Click to expand...
account. Now, double click the patch from step 5a, install it, delete it,
and then Logoff.
or
* To avoid using the registry patch, click Start / Run / regedt32 /
browse to: [HKCU\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] and Click
Edit / New / String value / ValueName: logoff / Value data: logoff REMEMBER:
Only create this auto logoff while logged on as able2play!


--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
http://www.dasmirnov.net/
http://windows.dasmirnov.net/ Windows XP Resource Site.

*Replace nospam with smirnov to reply by e-mail*
Click to expand...
 
It should, it's possible that XP Home like XP Pro has "Simple File
Sharing" enabled by default which hides the Security Tab /sarcasm
Thanks MS!/sarcasm I've personally never used XP Home but I find it
highly doubtfull that MS would remove access to such a basic function
of NTFS. I'll see if I can load my copy of XP Home under VPC and check
it out.
 
Found it:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/WinXP/Q_21046791.html

"Simple File Sharing is enabled by default and you cannot disable it in
Home Edition... but if you want to add the Security Tab to your Home
edition folders, here is one method that I have seen used:

Adding the Security Tab for W XP Home edition:

Go
to:http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/nts/downloads/recommended/scm/default.asp

Instructions: Download the x86 (Intel) version of the Security
Configuration Manager and save it to your hard disk. Double click the
SCESP4I.EXE file you downloaded and extract the contents to a temporary
location on your hard disk. Then open the folder you extracted the
files to and locate the Setup.inf (Setup Information) file. Right
click Setup.inf and select Install. After the installation is
finished, reboot your computer.

Disclaimer: I have tested this procedure on my XP Home installation,
and it works. I cannot guarantee that it will work on your system.
Make sure you create a System Restore point before proceeding."


It works. Only problem I don't like about this method is that it
applies 1998 NT4 security policies to XP. The "Simple File Sharing"
dialog is still gone but the Security tab shows up. Going to try out
the different security policies in XP and see if they have the same
effect. Since the functionality is there and it's enabled in such an
old policy then it should be easy to narrow it down.
 
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