One of the coolest things to come out of Microsoft’s soon-to-be-released operating system Windows Vista is a greatly enhanced ability to successfully run users as standard users. This is enabled by many features such as a revised design in the OS separating UI for admin tasks from UI for tasks that users should be allowed to perform (such as setting the time zone). Another enabler is the new file and registry virtualization technology that allows applications to succeed when they write to say C:\Program Files or to HKLM\Software. In that case, the write is virtualized to a location under the user’s profile with the application none the wiser.
However, at least one of the Microsoft feature teams seems to have completely missed the boat and fallen into the water. That’s right, they are all wet. As Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom would say, “haha, all wet, very funny!” Which feature is it that should throw in the proverbial towel? Would you believe it is SafeDocs? SafeDocs is the new incarnation of the old NT Backup that we all knew and… Wait. Well at least we knew it.
Toby is a LUser
No, not a loser! He is a “Limited User” with a Least-privileged User Account (LUA). He’s actually a standard “role” that Microsoft uses in scenario testing. In a similar fashion Abby is an administrator. For those that may be unfamiliar with these named roles, you can see a small example here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/evaluate/sgtour.mspx.
So why can’t Toby backup?
That’s a great question that all enterprises should send directly to Microsoft. Why indeed? It turns out that the feature team that brings you SafeDocs believes that only administrators need to have docs that are safe. That’s right: you need to be an administrator to do a backup! I guess that pretty much throws out the ability for any home user to run as a non-admin. For many corporations this means evaluating and purchasing a replacement backup tool so that users can backup their files. This will mean either running as an admin (not too smart!) or raising Windows Vista’s TCO as you pay for a product and maintenance for something that used to be included in Windows for free. Interestingly, on Windows XP a non-admin user could perform a backup using NT Backup without any problem whatsoever.
Are there workarounds?
Yes, you can apparently configure the SafeDocs program via group policy. This of course means that the destination where the backup goes and the time it kicks off are now out of the user’s control. What if they want the backup to go to their home drive? How about a USB attached drive? Second hard drive anyone? The stock answer here is that “their admin can configure it for them.” Doesn’t that strike you as funny? In this day and age when people are interested spending less on IT support, Microsoft actually makes it sound like there is an administrator standing there behind every user ready to hook them up with the configuration that they need today. Maybe before logon, this admin will ask the user, “Where do you want to go today?” To which the user will respond that he just wants to make a backup and needs an operating system installed that will let him do it.
Posted
Dec 14 2005, 08:28 PM
by
Jerry
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