Hi, I use a limited user account on Win7 Home Premium 64-bit. I downloaded and installed BOINC 6.10.58 using the default settings (UAC prompted me for an administrator password which I supplied).

After the install and a reboot, in the BOINC program group in the Start menu the only entry was BOINC Manager so I tried to run that and was told by the system that I couldn't run it as I might not have permission.

I did some Googling then uninstall BOINC and reinstalled it. This time I chose advanced and checked the multi-user box and set the destination for data files to be somewhere in my limited user's "home" folder (sorry, I'm really a Linux user not a Windows user).

This time BOINC Manager ran but complained that my limited user was not a member of the boinc_users local group. Home Premium doesn't have group administrator (at the gui level anyway) but Googling I found this and tried it:

net localgroup boinc_users Doug /add

The command completed successfully but I still get the error in BOINC Manager. I should mention that BOINC appeared to run fine when logged into an admin account.

I know how to solve this one, but that one defies the use of your limited user account. So I forwarded your plea to one of the developers. Wait until I hear back from him, please.

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Doug_M wrote:

but I still get the error in BOINC Manager. I should mention that BOINC appeared to run fine when logged into an admin account.

I've had the same problem, when I've started with Win7 Home. It would possibly be no problem If I'd use the "secure/private" (service) installation type (what I've been using on previous WinXP systems), but on Win7 I would not be able to use GPU. Thus I've installed it in "compatibility" mode. But... on the Home version, there is no user management console, no group policy editor, when my local admin (the second 'me') installed BOINC, I could not access its data and I had no way to put myself into boinc_users + boinc_admins groups.

Next attempt was to run BOINC as an admin user. This seemed to work fine, except: all BOINC apps were known to run with admin privileges (security...) and I had to run TThrottle as admin too, because otherwise it had not enough privileges to pause BOINC processes.

I was long wishing that if BOINC installer can create local groups, it should have no problems adding particular local users to these groups upon asking, or at least the user, who launched the installer. Some time later I've found this "net localgroup 'groupname' 'username' /add" command (thank you BOINC FAQ Service) and was finally able to put myself into the boinc_users + boinc_admins groups, run whole BOINC suite on behalf of myself (a plain user) and also run TThrottle as a plain user too. (Maybe I had also to set the whole ProgramData\BOINC\ directory tree belonging to myself in order to be able to write there, but possibly it was already so at the time I've found out about net localgroup.)

The last necessary point (which also concerns Doug_M) was to logout/login the whole session (or reboot? no, it was possibly not necessary), otherwise my processes did not yet inherit belonging to these boinc_* groups and I still was getting errors. (I've confirmed it by launching one application as admin, then launching another application from this as myself and my app already belonged to these groups.)

Wishes? Long story short:

• The BOINC installer (when its rights are elevated through UAC) should note, which user launched it (prior to becoming an admin process) and either add this user to boinc_admins (and possibly also boinc_users), or ask, whether and/or whom to add there.
  
• Finally, when BOINC installer terminates, it is asking, whether to launch BOINC manager. When confirmed, it launches BOINC Manager (and subsequently the client and all science apps) as an admin user, who was doing the installation!! (It does not matter with service installation, but does a lot with compatibility installs.)
  If the installer would note, which user launched it and this user would be a known boinc_user's member, then it should have enabled this checkpoint and started the Manager as this user.

Peter

I was long wishing that if BOINC installer can create local groups, it should have no problems adding particular local users to these groups upon asking, or at least the user, who launched the installer. Some time later I've found this "net localgroup 'groupname' 'username' /add" command (thank you BOINC FAQ Service) and was finally able to put myself into the boinc_users + boinc_admins groups, run whole BOINC suite on behalf of myself (a plain user) and also run TThrottle as a plain user too. (Maybe I had also to set the whole ProgramData\BOINC\ directory tree belonging to myself in order to be able to write there, but possibly it was already so at the time I've found out about net localgroup.)

Peter

I added myself to the boinc_admins group and this time it worked.

I added myself to the boinc_admins group and this time it worked.

Yeah, that was my solution. But that defies having a Windows limited user account. Only Windows Administrator accounts (and maybe Power Users) should be added to the boinc_admins account. In my humble opinion, at least.

So, still waiting for the developer answer.

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I added myself to the boinc_admins group and this time it worked.

Have you tried to logout/login your session prior to adding yourself to the boinc_admins group?

I added myself to the boinc_admins group and this time it worked.

But that defies having a Windows limited user account. Only Windows Administrator accounts (and maybe Power Users) should be added to the boinc_admins account. In my humble opinion, at least.

In my opinion, (in the compatibility mode) boinc_users group should be a list of those users, who area allowed to run BOINC Manager and boinc_admins for the same and additionally modify any BOINC setup files. (Off course, some real user must be running all the BOINC processes and this is comprehensively handled just in the case of service installation.)

...

After a couple of years I've again seen [trac]wiki:ClientSetupLogicWinSix[/trac] - it is excellently described, but just the "If "secure" is checked" case, the compatibility mode is completely left out (Rom??). And that I gues more and more users will like to use GPUs, I suspect a lot of them will have to use admin accounts, not seeing any other option.

Should we bring this up in the mailing list(s) to talk about?

Peter

In my opinion, (in the compatibility mode) boinc_users group should be a list of those users, who area allowed to run BOINC Manager

I gotta wonder.. since this is exactly what they can do. They can run BOINC Manager. But who runs the client at that time? Apparently no account, and as such these people aren't allowed to run BOINC.

Should we bring this up in the mailing list(s) to talk about?

I think so, as this isn't the last time someone has stumbled over this feature. And always on the Home versions of Windows (!!)

Ah, you want me to do that... well, that has to wait as an electrician is busy here dismantling my present electricity meter, before putting in a new one (digital, double tariff). I expect to need to power down everything any moment. ;-)

.. Ah, never mind, I emailed it to BOINC Alpha.

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Should we bring this up in the mailing list(s) to talk about?

I think so, as this isn't the last time someone has stumbled over this feature. And always on the Home versions of Windows (!!)

Ah, you want me to do that... [...] Ah, never mind, I emailed it to BOINC Alpha.

I had a long phone call, could not do it. You've summarized it very good, thanks!

Peter

I added myself to the boinc_admins group and this time it worked.

Have you tried to logout/login your session prior to adding yourself to the boinc_admins group?

Oh yes, did a full reboot in fact.

I added myself to the boinc_admins group and this time it worked.

Have you tried to logout/login your session prior to adding yourself to the boinc_admins group?

Oh yes, did a full reboot in fact.

Well, OK, then this indeed needs a more comprehensive testing. (At best on a virtual machine with fresh OS.)

I give up........................

I installed Windows 7 Home Premium on two of my computers (64 bit) and still have Windows XP on the other two. (I could not resist the package that allows 3 installations for $150.00 USD)

Now I cannot get Boinc Manager or Boinc View to communicate to the other Windows 7 computer. I don't believe it's the firewall as I have disabled the firewall at both computers and still no comms with Boinc Manager or Boinc View. I still have comms with the two Windows XP computers, just not between the two with Windows 7.

In fact Boinc Manager seems to connect to the other Windows 7 computer, no errors are displayed and it says it's connected at the bottom right corner. But there is no data in any tab.

Boinc version 6.12.13 64 bit at this time.

What am I missing here???

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Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....Boinc

Still firewall. Instead of disabling the firewall (which doesn't do much of anything under Windows 7 afaik), why not specifically allow BOINC Manager on TCP port 31416?

Start->Control Panel->System and Security->Windows Firewall->Allowed Programs
Check all BOINC Manager entries and all BOINC Client/boinc.exe entries you see there. Allow them for Home/Work (Private).

Can you also check something?
Open a command line window (cmd on the Run command), then type in that window:

net localgroup boinc_users {press Enter}

Are your allowed user names in this group?

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results of your requst...........

C:\Users\Don>net localgroup boinc_users
Alias name     boinc_users
Comment        Accounts in this group can monitor the BOINC client.

Members

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The command completed successfully.

C:\Users\Don>

Would seem I am not in the group or whatever it is.

New install of Windows 7 then installed Boinc 6.12.12. Removed 6.12.12 and installed 6.12.13. Results same since the install.

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So how do I give myself membership of the boinc_users group on this computer? I'm tired of using vnc on one computer.

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Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....Boinc

Yeah well, I don't think that's it. Something, somewhere, is broken. I checked in my boinc_users group and none of my accounts are in it, yet they can all run and control BOINC, due to their names being on the boinc_admins list.

But if you want to try. Open a command line window and type in it:
net localgroup boinc_users Geek2 /add, where Geek2 is the name you want to add. Hit Enter at the end of the line.

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Just thought of something else. I do not have an account on the remote computer in my name. During install of Windows 7 on that remote computer I used my wifes name. Do I need to set up an account there with my name?

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To do what? Share pictures and downloaded pr0n? ;-)
Or just to remotely control BOINC? I don't think that for the latter you need any special account as the controlling is done through a TCP port (31416, remember?).

The default directory where BOINC installs its data directory to is also not anyone's user account, but the All Users directory, as in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\BOINC

No need to define who can enter that directory or not, as far as I know "Everyone" can go in there.

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What if the data directory is D:\Boinc

edit..........same thing I suppose. Moving up to Windows 7 from Windows XP is a pain in the axx. Just don't know all this new fangled stuff.

I have boinc manager and boinc.exe allowed through local network on both Windows 7 machines. Don't know what else needs to be done.

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