Non-administrator permissions broken on Windows after install

[MattArsenault]

The permissions after installing BOINC on Windows (Windows 7 at least) are completely broken for the non-administrator accounts. The installer has an option to allow other users to control BOINC; it is initially greyed out, but is enabled after clicking the advanced button at one step in the installer. However, it doesn't work. After the installer finishes and the system is rebooted, the manager fails to run as a non-adminstrator account.

In the user account, there is a shortcut to BOINC which gives a permission error when you try to run it. I encountered further permission problems which I eventually gave up on, and ended up using the administrator account. This is overall an easy to encounter and a disastrous install experience, particularly for an average user. It's easier to describe the problem with screenshots of the process, so attached are a series screenshots walking through the failed install experience.

Only tested on Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit; it may or may not effect other Windows versions but it probably does.

[MattArsenault]

Series of screenshots of problem

[MattArsenault]

The additional user was also unable to administer BOINC after being made an Administrator account and the system restarted.

[Pepo]

Additionally, if the average user indeed decides to try to go the "safer" non-Admin way, on Windows 7 Home editions, there is even no straightforward way to add a plain user account to boinc_users and/or boinc_admins groups - the Group Policy Editor is disabled for these "cheaper systems".

Well, there are hints on web to a launch command like "net localgroup boinc_admins 'username' /add", but I suspect that just the true BOINC addicts will find them. If the BOINC installer could also ask for usernames to be added to these groups, it would for sure aid to the overall security of the installed system.

[Pepo]

One more note: If the user succeeds to configure the BOINC subsystem on his computer to be able to run, control and monitor it under a non-admin account, there is one more obstacle during a version update: the installer, running with raised administrator privileges, offers a final option to launch the client upon finishing the installation. Whops - the client will be run as the installing admin's user account!! The user may not notice this at all and the client may run for weeks... (true for the 6.12.x family, I believe for 6.10.58 too)

[Richard Haselgrove]

Problem appears to continue into v7.2.23 and beyond.

[romw]

testing email