You are here

7-Zip: issues with non admin use

7 posts / 0 new
Last post
cmmehl
Offline
Last seen: 13 years 1 month ago
Joined: 2006-01-27 09:55
7-Zip: issues with non admin use

I run 7-zip 4.42 from my USB stick. When started on a computer without admin rights, I get an errormsg that writing to the registry is not allowed. Doesn't really bother me as it works just fine afterwards - but could it be avoided somehow?

However what bothers me a bit are the non-persistent settings. In particular language - I'd like to use it in English all the time, but it keeps switching to the computer's default language after every new start.

Also I would like to set the temporary path used for extractions. I use the settings under Plugins/Folders, but this doesn't survive a new-start neither (and how could I set this to the root of my stick, for example?).

Finally I wonder about the existence of three zero-byte ini-files in the 7-ZipPortable directory (disabled.ini, exepaste.ini, exepigs.ini) - could someone enlighten me what these are good for?

Thx for constructive comments!
Chris

Deuce
Offline
Last seen: 13 years 6 months ago
Developer
Joined: 2005-12-24 16:32
I am not sure....

about the ini files, but as for the reg settings message and the saved settings...

The settings you are refering to are saved in the registry, the program copies the settings to a file in the 7-zip folder and on restart copies them back, but since you are not an admin and your administrator probably blocked all registry writes, then you do not have permission to write those settings to the registry, thereby making them disappear on shutdown. There is no way around this, as it is the way it works, unfortunately.

***********************************
Deuce {The Core}{Dev Blog}
Portable Software: Just the beginning.

Deuce
Portable Software: Just the beginning.

cmmehl
Offline
Last seen: 13 years 1 month ago
Joined: 2006-01-27 09:55
Thx for the explanations,

Thx for the explanations, Deuce.

But why the heck does 7-zip have to write to the registry at all? I mean - I don't ask for file associations, and (except for the settings) it works well even without having access to the registry. So it doesn't really appear necessary.

But since this seems to be inherent to the program, my question to all you expert portabilisers and wrappers: couldn't 7-zip be made portable by using some sort of pseudo-registry, which would actually write its settings to an ini file, like every well-educated portable program?

I really like portable 7-zip, but now there's a contender in the field: although not opensource, it's free and can do almost as much as 7-zip (maybe with the exception of the inbuilt file-browser), IZArc2Go is the name. Runs from my stick without any registry fuss, and as far as I could observe, it also leaves no traces behind. So it's actually more portable than 7-zip portable.

Cheers
Chris

Always on the move - love all portable apps!

John T. Haller
John T. Haller's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 hours 55 min ago
AdminDeveloperModeratorTranslator
Joined: 2005-11-28 22:21
Admin Not Required

None of the apps here require admin rights -- they work on admin, limited and guest-level accounts -- and 7-Zip Portable is no exception. Even a Windows 2000 Guest account, the most restrictive built-in account type there is, 7-Zip Portable works just fine. No built-in Windows account types disallow access to the HKCU registry hive. It's the "current user" hive for a reason... it only applies to the current user and affects nothing else in the system.

Some systems may have additional lockdowns above and beyond guest mode restrictions. These are really rare, but you will encounter them on certain public PCs. On these systems, any app which needs the registry will not be able to save its setting properly. 7-Zip is one of those apps. As is PuTTY. Certain things in Audacity won't work (like LAME). Things along those lines. The only way to get around this issue would be to modify the base apps themselves and create and maintain a full forked build of those apps. And that's not going to happen... we simply don't have the resources.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

cmmehl
Offline
Last seen: 13 years 1 month ago
Joined: 2006-01-27 09:55
Sorry

Sorry John (and others) - you are right, the phenomenons I described occur only on a particularly locked-down machine. I have tested meanwhile on a "regular" non-admin account, and no problems there.

But this is just another argument to have portable apps as little invasive as possible - even if the original settings are restored when the program exits, if I understood it correctly, portable 7-zip *does modify* the registry of the host computer (while it runs).

While it seems not possible to do with 7-zip, I think in general terms it would be much better to have the portable programs write their settings to a file into their own folder.

Thanks again for your patience and explanations!
Chris

Always on the move - love all portable apps!

John T. Haller
John T. Haller's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 hours 55 min ago
AdminDeveloperModeratorTranslator
Joined: 2005-11-28 22:21
As mentioned

This is not possible without forking the apps themselves. 7-Zip itself would have to be modified to accomplish this. And the fork would have to be maintained. Several other apps are the same way. This is simply NOT POSSIBLE with our current resources.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

netgk5815
Offline
Last seen: 13 years 11 months ago
Joined: 2007-06-18 16:00
Perhaps

the original developers of the most popular portable apps might be persuaded to make changes to the next major revision of their apps that would make them more friendly to portability ports or portability wrappers.

Then there would be no resource fork.

Log in or register to post comments