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Thursday, April 24, 2008

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Windows Live Mesh - Administrators not allowed?

Posted @ 9:06PM

So this is a new twist...

I decided to take a peek at Microsoft’s new Windows Live Mesh and upon attempting to install the client for Devices got this error message:

Product does not support running under an elevated administrator account or with UAC disabled.
Now, I don’t know about you but I’d be hard pressed to think of someone I know running Vista who hasn’t disabled UAC. Anyway, I switch my account to Power User and install the client which gives me this message hovering over my tray:

Some updates were not configured

Pressing forward I click on the Mesh icon in my tray and see this:

Windows Live Mesh tray application

Now, I recognize the little colorful shield next to Configure Live Mesh Report Desktop means it requires elevated privileges. I click the link and get the above error window again. So, I exit live Mesh, click on the Start menu, type "mesh" then right click to "Run as Administrator":

Run Live Mesh as Administrator

I return to the above Live Mesh window and click the "Configure Live Mesh Remote Desktop" link and:

Some updates were not configured

So much for living on the edge now, back to work!

Anyone else have better luck?

Comments [8]

permalink

Friday, April 25, 2008 12:53:12 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)

"I’d be hard pressed to think of someone I know running Vista who hasn’t disabled UAC."

I've just installed a new system with Windows 2008 ( configured as a desktop system, see http://www.win2008workstation.com/ ) and I decided to go with a normal limited user account. Beyond the first time the system booted I've never logged in to the Administrator desktop. And I have to say that I found the experience of setting up and using the system from a normal user account to be pretty smooth overall.

As for trying out Mesh:

"Note: Live Mesh Tech Preview is currently available in the US only. If you are not located in the US, we’ll contact you when a version is available in your country/region."

Thorsten Engler

Friday, April 25, 2008 6:11:54 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)

UAC is one of the things I like about Vista. Wouldn't dream of running with it disabled.

Tim

Tim Anderson

Friday, April 25, 2008 12:02:52 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)

Hi Thorsten & Tim,
Thanks for the comments. Fwiw, I tried for the first 4 months after installing Vista to run as Power User with UAC on and it nearly made me the laughing stock with the guys at CodeGear. I figured I wanted my experience to mirror that of the customer. Oh wel...

Eventually, I switched to using VS.NET full time and started debugging ASP.NET on IIS I gave up not running as admin and on using UAC.

Steve Trefethen

Friday, April 25, 2008 3:09:54 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)

I've been running Vista pretty solid on three different development machines for almost a year and I don't think I've ever been tempted to turn off UAC, except once trying to do some URL rewriting with an older module inside IIS7 with VS 2005. Usually after the initial flury of application installs I'm not prompted by UAC more than a few times a week.

I've found keeping UAC turned on helps ensure I'm getting the same experience most of my clients are which makes trouble shooting easier. Also it helps keep me honest since one of the reasons we are even in this UAC mess is because most Windows developers abused the system, ignored security guidelines and basically made the horrible assumption that everyone would always run with Admin priviliages.

Running UAC made you the laughing stock at CodeGear? That's just sad... though it explains a few things about the quality of certain experiences I've had using Delphi lately.

In a weird way I also use UAC to weed out poorly written programs. There has been more than enough time for devs to update their applications yet I still see a few that suggest disabling UAC to install or always running the application elevated, at which point the entire program goes in the trash heap.

Speaking of Live Mesh though... any invites left by any chance? :)

Shawn Oster

Friday, April 25, 2008 3:39:10 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)

Hey Shawn,
Thanks for the comment. Ok, so perhaps "laughing stock" might have been a bit overboard but I heard plenty of times "why don't you just turn that f*ing think off??" then it would move onto comments like I was a masochist etc.

Anyway, it's good to hear your position. There's no doubt I wanted/tried to keep it on since, at least conceptually, it makes sense. But alas, it finally annoyed me enough to the point where I just gave up on it. A "few times a week" is too much if you ask me particularly if I'm going to be on the system for 5-6 years as with XP. Perhaps now my machine has settled down in terms of installing new software it's time to revisit turning it back on. When you're setting up a machine from scratch UAC it's a horrible experience.

Steve Trefethen

Friday, April 25, 2008 3:40:04 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)

Shawn,
Btw, Mesh doesn't seem to have an invite system a la GMail but if I do get one I'll be sure to shoot it your way!

Steve Trefethen

Tuesday, April 29, 2008 5:16:16 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)

Hi Steve,
I keep UAC enabled, it doesn't bother me at all, but if you really don't want the UAC prompt to show up at least use the "silent mode" and don't just disable UAC.
Here is an interesting reading by a unix security guy that recently joined Microsoft, so his brain can not be considered washed yet! ;-)
http://blogs.msdn.com/crispincowan/default.aspx

EnricoG

Tuesday, April 29, 2008 9:25:55 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)

Hey Enrico,
Thank for the link and info. I'm going to revisit this and switch my account to a Power User account and reenable UAC in silent mode. We'll see how it goes!

Steve Trefethen

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