3/30/2001 Using PPPT32 Under Windows NT / Windows 2000 -------------------------------------------- The following describes how to give an account the needed special privileges to run the PicoWeb parallel port programming utility (pppt23.exe or avr.exe) under Windows NT (and Windows 2000). Under Windows NT/2000, the program "pppt32.exe" loads a special driver in order to give the program direct access to the PC parallel port. Therefore, special user privileges are needed. Normally, "Admistrators" have the needed privileges, but depending upon how your particular system is configured this may not be the case. If your account is already a member of Administrators and pppt32.exe (and/or "avr.exe", "pwload.bat", or "pwavrld.bat") still get the error "Error setting privs", then logging in as Administrator probably won't help. Here's the technique I would recommend: The Windows NT "User Manager" program is pretty nasty, but here's the basics of creating a new group called "I/O port access"...or whatever you want to call it. (1) Start "User Manager" (2) First, create a new group called "I/O port access" using User/New Local Group (3) Now go into the Policies/User Rights dialog box. (4) Click on the "Show Advanced User Rights" checkbox. (5) Go to the "Right:" pulldown, and add the following rights to the "I/O port access" group: * Act as part of the operating system * Debug programs * Load and unload device drivers I think those privs should be enough. Basically, you select the right you want, then click Add, and double-click the name of the I/O port access group in the top box, and it should add it to the bottom box. Then click OK to return to the main dialog to select the next right and repeat until done. (7) Now, make your account be a member of the "I/O port access" group. (8) Log out and back in again to the account with the new privileges. You should no longer get the privilege error message from "avr -en". Do not grant the privileges directly to your account...that is wrong. The proper technique is to create a group which "houses" the privileges needed to perform a given function, named by the name of the function, and then make users who need to perform that function be members of that group. That way, if the privileges required to perform that function CHANGE in the future, you won't have to go modifying a million different accounts...just the group. Even if you have very few accounts on your machine, you should follow this procedure. - Steve Freyder (steve@freyder.net) -------------------------------------------------------------------- How to setup for "User Rights" under Windows 2000: In the Control Panel in there is a folder named "Administrative Tools". The applet to create the group is named "Computer Management". Once open you can expand "System Tools" then expand "Local Users and Groups". Create the group, then add users to the group. Once added you can add extra rights to the group. In the "Administrative Tools" folder is yet another applet named "Local Security Policy". Run it, expand "Security Settings" then expand "Local Policies" then expand "User Rights Assignment". You should find what you are looking for in there. - Lou Bergandi (bergandi@network-alchemy.com) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Creating a New Group Under Windows 2000: Start-> Settings-> Control Panel-> Administrative Tools-> Computer Management-> Expand "Local Users and Groups" (1) Click "Groups" (2) Click "Action" on the menu bar. (3) Click "New Group..." to create the group. (4) Double click the group description that was created. (5) A dialog box for that group will appear. Use the "Add..." button to add users to the group. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Assigning Group Privileges Under Windows 2000: Start-> Settings-> Control Panel-> Administrative Tools-> Local Security Policy-> Security Settings-> Expand "Local Policies"-> User Rights Assignments A list of policies is displayed. (1) Double click on the desired policy. This will pop up another dialog box displaying the policy description and to whom it is assigned. (2) Click on the "Add..." button to display the "Select Users or Groups" dialog box. (3) Select the group that requires the policy and click add, then click ok. After a few moments the dialog box will vanish and the previous dialog box will show the new group in the policy list. (4) Click ok. Repeat the above for each policy that a group requires. - Mark Hunt --------------------------------------------------------------------