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Mario 2004-07-13 19:38
I am not your average Windows user. Having done software development at Microsoft of all places and nowadays being inside of a computer security group at "Fidelity Investments" I operate on constant paranoia when it comes to running desktop applications.
More to the point I do something that I would be willing to bet 99.5% of plain jane Windows users do not do - run various applications with different security credentials other than those I have logged on with.
I am quite aggressive in my use of "limited accounts" or even in the case of WinAmp creating an administrative account just for it (since WinAmp does not work in a "limited account") then go change play with the file system’s access control lists (ACLs) and revoke the ability of that admin account to write to C:\WINDOWS and many other directories.
I also run Microsoft Office applications in an account that I have hardened in various ways and this account is different than that account I sign onto my desktop with.
Anyway if a GUI application, e.g., MS Word or Excel , is running under a different account/security credentials, Ultramon does place its extra buttons in the upper right corner nor does the application gravitate from taskbar to taskbar as I would expect. If I move this type of application to my secondary monitor it stays in the primary taskbar.
On the other hand if I fire up an application with different security credentials and I happened to have quit that application on the secondary monitor after having moved it there while it was being displayed on the primary task bar it will then wind up in Ultramon's secondary taskbar the next time I run it. However if I then move it to the primary desktop, it will stay on the secondary taskbar. This is just the inverse of the first situation.
In a nutshell applications do not gravitate from taskbar to taskbar as you move them from one monitor to another when they are running in different security credentials other than what you have signed on with.
This is the only beef I have with ULTRAMON before putting down money for it.
I am willing to bet it is a small code change. I could be wrong but it is one of those things that could be easily overlooked when Ultramon was being coded up.
Generally speaking t is quite easy to not test this scenario (I am not faulting Ultramon’s author) since it seems practically no one uses Windows security despite the fact that such mechanisms have been in place since the Windows NT kernel's debut in the early 90's. Everyone speaks of firewalls and antivirus programs but few people seem to leverage the fact that you can create different accounts on Windows NT/2000/XP and set very fine grained permissions on the file system. For example, if people and organizations used “limited accounts” more readily Windows viruses and worms would be making a lot less noise. Yes some apps need to be run in administrative mode but Windows can readily fire up applications with different security credentials. Just right click on any EXE. See the menu option “Run as...” Yeah, you probably never noticed it… just like most Windows users. (wink)
But then again, convenience and security are inversely proportional to each other.
Unfortunately MS has done a piss poor job of educating users and extending the Windows desktop’s metaphor to incorporate security features of the underlying Windows NT kernel that have been there from the start (early 90’s).
Ok, I will get off my soapbox.
Anyway, it would be nice if Ultramon did not discriminate between applications that had different credentials than those I have signed on with - regardless of whether it is a bug in Ultramon or an artifact of its implementation on account of oversight (I am guessing the latter).
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Mario 2004-07-13 19:50
Mistyped a key point.
"Anyway if a GUI application, e.g., MS Word or Excel , is running under a different account/security credentials, Ultramon does *NOT* place its extra buttons in the upper right corner nor does the application gravitate from taskbar to taskbar as I would expect."
Namely it does not place the extra buttons in the upper right corner.
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Christian Studer 2004-07-14 00:25
The problem is that applications running under a different account don't get 'hooked', this is what UltraMon does to add the custom buttons/menu commands and to monitor application movement for the Smart Taskbar.
You'll see the same problem with other applications which use hooking, for example the Nvidia nView Desktop Manager.
I don't think this can be fixed, but will take a closer look at this issue for UltraMon 3.
Otherwise, UltraMon should work fine with limited user accounts, I'm using a limited user account on my own workstation.
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
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Mario 2004-07-15 10:58
Yep, I'm sure it works with "Limited Accounts" just fine. Except I login with administrative privileges on account of the fact that I regularly run games... many which don't like "Limited Accounts."
It's when I fire various things up that I will have a program acquire a different security token through "RunAs."
Thanks for the reply.
As for the hooking problem. Hmmm, you could always launch a proxy program that acquires that context. You would probably need to use Window station and Desktop APIs, e.g.:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dllproc/base/enumwindowstations.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dllproc/base/opendesktop.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dllproc/base/enumdesktopwindows.asp
Then again, I recognize that this is coding most people won't leverage since as I said in my original post, people hardly leverage the facilities that Windows affords them. C'est la vie. My loss.
Then again, if you'd like... I may be willing to contribute. Your call.
-M
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Lee 2006-05-28 13:06
I'm seeing this issue as well. I'd be keen to see this minor issue fixed.
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trevorg 2008-07-23 07:24
I have the same issue here and would like to see a fix if possible.
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Christian Studer 2008-07-23 10:22
This is no longer an issue with the 3.0 beta.
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
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