problems with installing Foxmarks for IE
Hi!
I tried to install Foxmarks for IE (ver. 0.9.67) on an MS Windows XP
Professional SP3. (I also use Foxmarks with Firefox 3.0).
As Win XP is a multi-user system, and for security reasons (viruses
etc.), I login to it as a user with limited user rights (i.e. who is
member of the Users local security group only) when doing my usual job
in Windows. I use the Windows administrator account only when
installing software and doing other administrative tasks.
So, after downloading foxmarks-installer-for-ie-0.9.67.msi I run it as
the administrator. I saw that it installed itself to a directory in
"C:\Program Files\Foxmarks\IE Extension", which was fine.
When the Foxmarks Setup Wizard started, I canceled it as I would not
use it as the administrator.
I also saw that the installation created some shortcuts in
"C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Start Menu\Programs\Foxmarks\"
(i.e. in the administrator's profile directory).
That's bad because those shortcuts would not be accessible by other
users of the system. Instead the shortcuts should be created in
"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Foxmarks\"
(i.e. in the profile accessible for all users).
So I copied (not moved) the shortcuts to the right place.
Then I logged in with my limited user account and run Foxmarks to set
it up. Here I noticed that the icon of the Foxmarks Favorites
Synchronizer in the Start Menu was not shown correctly because the
icon was taken from the following file:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Microsoft\Installer\{F475B92D-69A1-4642-B580-C6F8F29BAA61}\MainIcon.ico
which is not accessible by a limited user account (icon file is in the
administrator's profile).
Instead the icon should be taken from the executable:
"C:\Program Files\Foxmarks\IE Extension\foxmarkssync.exe".
Please fix the Foxmarks installer for IE so that it
works correctly in the multi-user Windows environments.
Regards,
-- rpr. /Robert Premuž/
I tried to install Foxmarks for IE (ver. 0.9.67) on an MS Windows XP
Professional SP3. (I also use Foxmarks with Firefox 3.0).
As Win XP is a multi-user system, and for security reasons (viruses
etc.), I login to it as a user with limited user rights (i.e. who is
member of the Users local security group only) when doing my usual job
in Windows. I use the Windows administrator account only when
installing software and doing other administrative tasks.
So, after downloading foxmarks-installer-for-ie-0.9.67.msi I run it as
the administrator. I saw that it installed itself to a directory in
"C:\Program Files\Foxmarks\IE Extension", which was fine.
When the Foxmarks Setup Wizard started, I canceled it as I would not
use it as the administrator.
I also saw that the installation created some shortcuts in
"C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Start Menu\Programs\Foxmarks\"
(i.e. in the administrator's profile directory).
That's bad because those shortcuts would not be accessible by other
users of the system. Instead the shortcuts should be created in
"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Foxmarks\"
(i.e. in the profile accessible for all users).
So I copied (not moved) the shortcuts to the right place.
Then I logged in with my limited user account and run Foxmarks to set
it up. Here I noticed that the icon of the Foxmarks Favorites
Synchronizer in the Start Menu was not shown correctly because the
icon was taken from the following file:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Microsoft\Installer\{F475B92D-69A1-4642-B580-C6F8F29BAA61}\MainIcon.ico
which is not accessible by a limited user account (icon file is in the
administrator's profile).
Instead the icon should be taken from the executable:
"C:\Program Files\Foxmarks\IE Extension\foxmarkssync.exe".
Please fix the Foxmarks installer for IE so that it
works correctly in the multi-user Windows environments.
Regards,
-- rpr. /Robert Premuž/
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Inappropriate?I'd been able to set up foxmarks for firefox in my non-admin windows account without problems, so I began the foxmarks install for IE by trying to use my non-admin account as well. That failed due to permissions problems.
Next, I logged into my admin account and ran the Windows installer for foxmarks. I went ahead and set up IE in that account with my regular foxmarks syncing, just for the heck of it.
After that, I went back to my non-admin windows account and re-ran the foxmarks install there, since it wasn't clear how ELSE I could get into the browser setup wizard. Surprisingly, this time the install proceeded without filesystem permissions problems. The only issues were a couple of registry keys that it couldn't modify. I just hit 'ignore' for those, on the theory that they'd already been set when I installed as the admin user. After that, the wizard let me set up my non-admin IE for syncing, and appeared to work fine.
The same point is clear, though: foxmarks needs to have a better story (or at least better instructions) for multiuser Windows systems, and Windows accounts that don't have admin privileges.
(I'm using Windows XP SP2.)
-
Inappropriate?Thanks for being so detailed, Robert. You're right, our non-administrator setup is kind of broken right now. It's on our list of things to fix, but there are a few things we need to address before we can get to it. :(
-
Inappropriate?An addition to my previous problem report (see above):
I've tried the Xmarks 1.0.10 with IE8 (on a MS WinXP SP3) and run into the same problems in multi-user Windows environment.
Please, fix the Xmarks installer for IE to work for the minority of us who try to use multi-user operating systems the right way. I'd say that after more that 10 years of multi-user Windows (starting with Windows NT) still too many software developers have not learned how to make their software compatible with multiple user profiles, limited users accounts, file permissions, registry permissions etc. that exist in multi-user Windows environment. They still think that PC ultimately means one user account with administrative rights.
-- rpr. -
Inappropriate?All my family have been using foxmar/xmark on firefox for a year around, and I was so happy today that I found this xmark supports IE too.
I synced my firefox and IE and showed to my family this news.
Then I realised that the IE version of xmark does not support multi-user, now I have to sacrifise either myself or one of my family who all insist they want to sync firefox and IE too...
Please please please support this future for IE soon.
I’m sad...
-
Inappropriate?Just to clarify, by "multi-user" do you mean that you have more than one Windows accounts on a single machine and you want both accounts to use Xmarks for IE?
If so, I might have a solution for you. First, make sure you're getting the most recent version of Xmarks for IE (version 1.1.3), it includes some changes that should allow it to be installed for multiple users. Secondly, when you install Xmarks, make sure you change the install location away from C:\Program Files\Xmarks and into a user-specific location (like C:\Users\[your username]).
Hopefully that'll work for you! -
I've just upgraded to Xmarks for IE v. 1.1.3 on a MS Windows XP
Professional SP3.
The installation still works incorrectly - it creates the program shortcuts in
"%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Xmarks"
and the Xmarks for IE icon is
"%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Installer\{F318330F-DE7D-4B22-AF7C-C3760DDC2EF3}\MainIcon.ico"
where the USERPROFILE and APPDATA variables depend on the current user.
Instead, the program shortcuts should be created in
"%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Xmarks"
while the Xmarks for IE icon should be taken from
"installation_directory\xmarkssync.exe"
i.e. "%ProgramFiles%\Xmarks\IE Extension\xmarkssync.exe" by default.
Note that ALLUSERSPROFILE and ProgramFiles variables have constant values for
all users on the system.
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