NT4 User Permissions, Mother may I? 
by Clark Anderson

Normally, I think, only some basic software would be installed from the Administrator Logon.  The 
bulk of the software would be installed from a user’s logon.  This would give the ownership and 
permissions to the user by default.  Well, somebody has to learn from the school of hard knocks.  
I was too early on the learning curve to do it that way.  So almost all software was installed from 
the Administrator logon and the users did not have any permissions.  I have learned how to fix 
that.  Shall we jump in?

Open Windows NT Explorer (Start/Programs/ Windows NT Explorer).  Find which drive has the 
WinNT directory.  

Locate \WinNT\Profiles\Administrator\Start Menu\Programs.  Left Click on this Programs folder to 
open it.  I would expect you to see Shortcuts to Application Programs listed on the right.  

Right mouse click on one of these to open the Properties and select Shortcut.  

Click on Find Target.  This will open a list or window with Icons, highlighting the Target Program. 

Right mouse click on this Target Program Icon to open its Properties and select Security.  I would 
expect the tab selection to be: General/Security or General/Version/Security or maybe 
General/Shortcut/Security.  

Select Security.

On the Security form, click on Permissions.  If it lists " Everyone    Full control (All)", you are done 
with this one and you can click Cancel.  

Most likely it will list: " Administrators Full control (All)" and maybe "SYSTEM    Full control (All)".  
We need to give "Everyone" some permissions.  

Click Add.  Select "Everyone" (or "Power Users" if you prefer).  

Click Add.  Select Type of Access = Change (Read/Write/Execute/Delete), then click OK for Add 
Users and Groups. 

Then click OK again for File Permissions, and click OK for Properties/Security.  

I think the most important place to define the permissions is on a Properties form that has the 
General/Version/Security selection.  It may be a good idea to check the Properties forms with the 
General/Shortcut/Security selection.

I needed to do this process with all of the programs on at least one PC.  The Administrator logon 
has too much clout and can do damage.  The User logons need enough functionality to avoid the 
temptation to always be an Administrator.  

This description is relatively short.  I have been working on a longer one to describe where in the 
User Profiles I think every thing belongs.  This permissions adjustment process can make 
rearranging profiles work more smoothly.   It is also useful if a user gets error messages denying 
access to a program or other file.

Again, you probably would never need this if user applications are installed within a user logon 
and only restricted applications are installed within the Administrator or another restricted logon.  
But `Hey, life is a learning process`!