Working Around

I've had issues with permissions for the longest time. That is, in Windows XP. I've never really studied them in detail. In Ubuntu, its all a 'sudo' away. Very convenient. And there's a one-stop resource you can depend on in the Ubuntu Guide. I did with the help of a few web forums find a way around my 2 most common problems.

One was getting around having to download Nero's Burn Rights to burn media even if you're using a non-administrator account in XP. See, the last time my PC got a virus, I had to nuke the hard disk with DBAN before it returned to normal. That was before I was able to back-up my precious data. So I was left without a copy of Nero Burn Rights. After desperately trying to download it for several days, I gave up as all the mirrors hosting it seemed to be non-responsive. I could not download that one file, while all other files downloaded with nary a hitch.

Turns out there is a simpler way to do that. Try this if you're having the same predicament: Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > Administrative Tools > Local Security Policy (Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Local Security Policy in classic view). That path opens up a new window, and on the left pane where the navigation tree is select Security Options if it hasn't been highlighted by default. To the right, look for the entry "Devices:Restrict CD-ROM access to locally logged-on user only", double-click the entry and select Enabled and click the OK button. This setting disables remote users ability to use the optical drive on your PC. It's neat side effect is that you can burn media while logged on to a non-admin user account. Only users currently logged in can then use the burner from then on.

Another lemon I've had for the longest time was USB thumb-drive permissions. I had no problem writing files onto them but have had problems when I wanted to format them. which explains why I got a virus in the first place. Long story. Anyhow, same work-around saved me some grief. Almost the same, that is : Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > Administrative Tools > Local Security Policy (Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Local Security Policy in classic view). Click Security Options on the left navigation tree. On the right pane look for the entry "Devices: Allowed to format and eject removable media", double-click it and select "Administrators and Interactive Users" from the dropdown menu and click the OK button. That should fix it.