[ISN] Windows 95 User Profile Security

 PC Magazine -- January 20, 1998

 Windows 95 User Profile Security
 Neil J. Rubenking


 I just configured a single machine to use User
 Profiles in standalone mode, following the procedure
 presented in your July 1996 issue. Everything is
 working well, with one exception: Any folders under
 C:\Windows\Profiles\User automatically spawn an open
 window on the restricted desktop, completely
 defeating the security. Your help in solving this
 problem would be greatly appreciated.

     Peter Cohen
     via the Internet

 PC MAGAZINE: This problem is almost certainly caused
 by an incorrect value entered in the System Policy
 Editor. Run POLEDIT, open one of your user policies,
 and navigate to Shell\Custom Folders\Custom Desktop
 Icons. In the panel below, you should see something
 like C:\WINDOW95\Profiles\User\

 DESKTOP. I deduce that your system instead has
 something like C:\WNDOW95\Profiles. By using that
 truncated value, I was able to reproduce precisely
 the symptoms you've described.

 To fix the problem, append \User\DESKTOP to the path
 replacing User with the name of the user profile. Fo
 example, if your Windows folder is D:\Windows and th
 profile is Pete, the string would be
 D:\Windows\Profiles\Pete\DESKTOP. While you have
 POLEDIT open, check the other items under Custom
 Folders. Now repeat this process for any remaining
 user policies. That should solve the problem.

 Using a Zip Drive for Backups

 I'd like to use my Iomega Zip drive for backups, but
 the backup program that comes with Microsoft Windows
 95 doesn't allow backups to span Zip cartridges. I
 asked Iomega whether there was a way to use the Zip
 drive for backups and whether they knew of any
 software for letting a backup span Zip cartridges,
 but I got no reply.

     John King
     via the Internet

 PC MAGAZINE: As long as you don't require your backu
 software to compress the data, you may be able to
 recycle an old technique for backing up to floppy
 disks. This technique uses the XCOPY command's /M
 switch, which copies files with the archive attribut
 and then removes the archive attribute. Backup
 programs use this attribute to tell when files need
 to be backed up. For a full backup, first set the
 archive attribute for all files using a command like

 ATTRIB +A C:\*.* /S

 Then, with a blank Zip disk in the drive (we'll say
 it's E:), issue the command

 XCOPY C:\*.* E:\ /S /M

 The /S switch causes XCOPY to copy all files in all
 subdirectories of the specified location as well.
 XCOPY keeps copying files with the archive attribute
 and removing the attribute on each file until the
 destination runs out of room. At that point, you
 insert another blank Zip disk and give the same
 command again. XCOPY removed the archive attribute
 from the files that were successfully copied to the
 first Zip disk, so you will be copying files that
 weren't copied before. Repeat until XCOPY terminates
 without a "disk full" error.


-o-
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