I just got a new computer with Windows 7. All the advice tells you to create multiple user accounts, so that is what I did. I have an administrator account, a standard account and a guest account. Previously, under XP, I only had the one account that could do everything.
My question is this; Once I have downloaded and installed a program (for instance, Chrome) in my administrator account, how do I make that program available to the standard and guest accounts? Do I need to download and install a separate instance of each program? That does not sound right.
I agree that it doesn’t sound right, but in some cases that’s exactly how it works. Some applications install into your personal directories, and this has to be done separately for each user.
Google Chrome is such a program: mine installed itself into C:\Users**<MyUserName>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application** . I just used an unprivileged account to install a separate copy of Chrome, and even with UAC active I was never asked for an admin password. So it seems even unprivileged users can install applications this way, with the assumption that they can’t break anybody else’s stuff.<<
I find this silly, personally, because unprivileged accounts are partly there to prevent newbie users from breaking their own stuff.
It depends on how you install Chrome. Using the link that appears on the Google page uses an installer that only installs for the one user. You can download the Google Pack installer from http://pack.google.com/intl/en/pack_installer.html that will install for all users.
That’s interesting. I just installed Firefox and it was available to all users. The difference is that Chrome installs itself in a user app data folder while most other programs are in the central Program folder which is available to every account. The reason why Google does this appears to be a matter of speculation, but the only explanation that makes any sense to me is that they did it precisely to allow non admin users to install it (see Heracles experience above).
That is precisely why they do it, although they are more concerned with making Chrome automatically update under a limited user account. I use software that tells me exactly what program are running on my PC at all times. Chrome can update as much as three times a day.
I’m pretty sure that, if each update brought forth the UAC prompt, you’d get tired of it rather quickly. Other programs install a service that can gain Administrator access on its own, but those are prone to attacks.
BTW, you can install Firefox under a limited account. You just have to choose the custom option in the installer, and then point it to a folder you have access to, like one in your (My) Documents folder.