Windows XP and Limited Accounts

[YKW]

I have an XP box with three limited accounts and one admin account, mainly used for installing programs. Some games, like Zeus and Warcraft 3 only work with the admin account (Zeus doesn't find the CD and Warcraft can't save). Please make sure that CotN works with limited accounts. Also, add the shortcuts to the Start menu for every user. Many programs seem to forget that.

Ps. Anyone remember me, YouKnowWho? No? Good. :D

[Azeem]

Yes, I know who YouKnowWho is, as we at the old Impressions forums should know who you know who is. ;)

[NeilV]

Just give one of your limited accounts admin rights and password it as nearly all games on XP or win2k need admin rights enabled its to do with the OS not the game :)

[tobing]

But that is, what you do NOT want normally, so I would instead prefer one account to play and surf, another for administration. Just for the sake of security... And the issue is not only OS, but also usage. Generally you have to make sure that directories to write to have the appropriate rights, which is not always clear in Windows, but more you have to have the proper settings for parts of the registry you use. That's even less clear, so most developpers go the easy way and always use admin rights. But it can be done, there are enough games out that do work with normal user accounts, so I agree and also wish that CotN would work without admin rights.

[Josh]

Just whatever the developers do I just hope they dont do that new thing I have been seeing where they stick the save game files in the my documents folder

I dont need my my documents folder filled up with a folder for every game I have! Its so annoying for someone who uses their computer for work to have the folder where they store all their documents spreadsheets and data cluttered with MAX PAYNE SAVE and GTA3 Saves and whatnot, If you need to stick it in the my documents folder atleast have everyone agree on sticking it all in a folder like "my save games" or "my saves" instead of starting one folder for each game.

I just dont see what the problem is with sticking it in the game install directory...

[EmperorJay]

That's a very good point. A friend of mine had completed GTA and had locked everything and when I asked him to send me the file we both were puzzled at first where to look for the save files. I then also found out other games had put their save files in there too. I'm still puzzled why they would do that.

[Keith]

That's weird. I'd not heard of that until now. That would be annoying to say the least. Keep 'em in the usual place in a SAVE folder in the game's installed path.

[tobing]

For games, in general, I would agree to have savegames in the games' folder. For other applications it's different - you definitely want to separate the application's installation files from user data. So when games are viewed as applications it makes perfectly sense to also separate user data (savegames and user created campaigns for example) from the games' installation. But then you (or better: Windows) must solve the problem of sharing personal data, so if different players use the same computer they should be able to their respective savegames and/or campaigns. To simply just store anything in 'My Documents' is only half of the solution. Or just think about admin rights or not: In general you do not want to have a normal user of your PC install any software (just because of security), so have an admin install the software and then let the normal user use it (play the game). Now if you try to store savegames (or options btw) in the games' installation folder, you will not be allowed to change files there - which is correct in terms of permissions and security! In any Unix everybody knows this and accepts it, but on windows people are not used to distinguish different permissions, and Windows tries to incorporate these aspects now, more and more.

So personally I don't mind games or applications write their data into my personal Folder, but most often I just wish to know wether they write things there or not, and if they do, then they should do so completely!

Ah, and of course, I do not play games on the computer I work on...

[mouse]

Another view point I install all my games on their own partition and keep my operating system partition small so I don't like saved games in my documents folder :D Matter of fact I install very little other than operating system on my primary partition even my favorites are not on the primary partition.

[tobing]

Right: I keep my system and most of installed software on C: - the games reside on F:, partitions D: and E: are for software development and video editing, G: stores CD images and various collections (of game tipps, e-books or pieces open source software) - and somewhere in between that there is 'My Documents' (certainly neither on C: nor on F: ) which is regularly backup up on another disk, the laptop or CD. So if I would lose any of these partitions I can easily re-install the game and savegames are just in place - in My Documents!

[NeilV]

I quite like saved games in the My documents folder as it saves me time going through all my game folders looking for saves when I back up my system I think more games should do this as long as they put them in their own folder its fine.
But for the sake of tidiness a Game saves folder in my Documents with the games saving to their own folders would be good, or take a leaf out of RCT and allow people to choose their own save location.

[Keith]

I quite like saved games in the My documents folder as it saves me time going through all my game folders looking for saves when I back up my system I think more games should do this as long as they put them in their own folder its fine.
But for the sake of tidiness a Game saves folder in my Documents with the games saving to their own folders would be good, or take a leaf out of RCT and allow people to choose their own save location.
When I find myself looking for a specific subfolder all the time I just make a shortcut to it on my desktop. If you have a number of these on your desktop you can put them in yet another desktop folder just to keep the organized.
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[Josh]

I wouldnt be opposed to putting them in My Documents/My Saved Games/Tilted Mill/Children Of The Nile its when they just put the folder in the root of my documents that it sucks

I try and have as few of folders on the face of my documents as possible, which then break down into more specific folders that you might actualy see a file in.

[tobing]

As this is completely a matter of taste and personal habits, I think I would prefer to be able to specify the path where to store my savegames.

[PCDania]

Another view point I install all my games on their own partition and keep my operating system partition small so I don't like saved games in my documents folder :D Matter of fact I install very little other than operating system on my primary partition even my favorites are not on the primary partition.

Echoes mouse :)

[virus2]

That's a very good point. A friend of mine had completed GTA and had locked everything and when I asked him to send me the file we both were puzzled at first where to look for the save files. I then also found out other games had put their save files in there too. I'm still puzzled why they would do that.

to make sure that other users using the computer won't steal or delete (by a evil brother/sister) your savegame :p