Denford Software and the UAC

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Denford Software and the UAC

Post by Denford Admin » Fri 06 May , 2011 10:22 am

We are making changes to Denford software in order to make it work better with windows 7 and different account types.
UAC (User Account Control) awareness is being added to our software products so that setup files can be properly shared between users on the same machine/network. We found that some applications were being virtualised which meant multiple copies of configuration files existed...
For example, VR Milling was storing the AllOffsets.MOF file in this folder:
c:\users\USERNAME\appdata\local\virtualstore\Denford\AllOffsets.MOF
but when QuickCAM Pro ran, it was not being virtualised so was looking for the file in it's correct location:
c:\programdata\Denford\AllOffsets.MOF

As of 6th May 2011, we decided to make our applications UAC setting to HighestAvailable.
This means that if you are an Administrator then you will be prompted every time the software starts, this is so that setting files which affect all users can be changed:
uac.jpg
uac.jpg (36.61 KiB) Viewed 17456 times
If you are standard user account then the software will run normally, but certain features will be limited.
for example you will not be able to edit/save tooloffsets:
run-as-admin.jpg
run-as-admin.jpg (33.02 KiB) Viewed 17454 times
So, for the example of the tool offsets file (AllOffsets.MOF):
Normal account:
VR Milling 5 will allow students to change the values but not save them.
QuickCAM Pro will be able to read the tool offsets file but not allow any changes to it.

Admin account:
UAC warning appears
VR Milling 5 will allow editing of tool offsets to be saved
QuickCAM Pro will allow editing of tool offsets to be saved

We are also incorporating changes which will copy any example documents installed by the Administrator into each users own document folder when they run the software.
eg: any folders installed into the folder \CommonAppData*\Denford\Documents will get copied to the users MyDocuments\Denford folder - if they don't already exist.
(* where CommonAppData is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data or c:\ProgramData\)

These changes will hopefully make it easier to manage our software in network environments

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