Multiuser support available

[chris_31]

Hi everyone,

I think this might be interesting to some of you folks: I have written a little extension that allows for true multiuser support -- that is, it allows every user on a Win2K or WinXP system to have their own private settings. (Tested on XP and 2K, but should work on NT too. Not tested at all on non-NT platforms (what for anyway?))

It is not the same as the profile plugin, i.e. it does not allow you to choose a profile. It simply keeps the user's configuration in the user's home directory, as all "normal" (SCNR) applications do. Once installed, this feature is completely transparent to the user. If it is properly configured, it also works around the security breach effect of needing full write access to the winamp directory.

Download here:

http://members.rosenkeller.org/~christoph/wamulti/

31 kB including source!

Feedback -- positive or negative -- is appreciated.

Cheers and greetings from Germany,
Chris

[chris_31]

Oh well, for that one guy who has already downloaded it, and to push the thread up again *g*:
new version available with better error checking and administration support.

[DJ Egg]

Hey, wow. Thanks for this.
I'll be adding this to all the relevant sections in the faq stickys
and will also bring it to the attention of the devs (if that's ok by you).

I haven't tested it yet (this comp is set up for one user only)...
Which files does it store separately?
winamp.ini | studio.xnf | gen_ml.ini | "winamp\plugins\ml" dir | any others?
Or do you just store all relevant user data in one single generated file or regkey?

[edit] re: reply below - ah, I see... [/edit]

[chris_31]

Hi,
it stores _every_ changed file. That is, it simply compares the situation the user leaves behind to a "reference" configuration, so everything the user has changed is stored. Even if the user has added/deleted plugins, this information is reflected in the filesystem and will be stored in his profile...
Again, there is no logic in it to know what a file is for (except for the bookmarks, which are needed for winamp agent as a special case), it just saves modified files/directories. For further info on how it works, see the readme.txt or, if you're a hardcore developer, look at te source :-)

And yes, of course, please bring it to the attention of the developers. If something similar could be implemented in Winamp itself until true multi-user support is available in the core program, this would of course be better than this workaround :-)

Cheers!

PS: even if you're the only user on the computer, you can still install it, and it'll work - it just won't make too much sense, except possibly for being able to go back to a clean state at any time...

[DJ Egg]

Ok, thanks for the info.
I'm moving this from Winamp Wishlist to Discussion forum
to see if we can get some user feedback...

[asellus]

From the readme

4) Give "nearly full" access to the Winamp folder to all users. "Nearly full" means
everything except delete folder, change owner and change properties rights. Additionaly,
give "read and execute" rights to winamp.exe, msacm32.dll (and winampa.exe and
wabmcopy.exe, if you have installed the Winamp agent). You will have to override
inherited preferences for these, so just do that. Give "read only" access to the
"Winamp reference" folder you created.

How exactly I should do this step? I right-clicked the Winamp folder and didn't see anything that will allow me to access rights (or whatever it is called).

[chris_31]

Hi,

what OS do you use?

if you're using XP Pro, try this:
in explorer, click Tools -> folder options -> view and uncheck the "Use Simple File Sharing (Recommended)" checkbox. Apply the settings and right-click on the folder. You should then have a tab "permissions" where you can set the values as described.

in Win2K you should have this tab by default.

For XP home, the procedure seems much more complicated :-/
see http://support.microsoft.com/default...8418&sd=tech#3 for details

[d3x7r0]

This seems to be just what winamp needed, hope the devs pick this up.

Aldo I too use a single-user pc I'll try to keep track of this.

n1 chris_31

[MasterViVi]

This means it also stores what skin is used and in what position, opacity settings, etc...?

[chris_31]

Yes, it saves *every* setting to the user profile just try it

As to the file permissions stuff, I have added a package for download which does all the file permission setting steps automatically. As said, this is especially useful to XP Home users, or to lazy admins

[chris_31]

Oh, I just noticed a tiny lapsus in wabmcopy.exe (had forgotten to delete the bookmarks file if the user had none, so a user could have got access to another user's bookmarks). If you wish to "upgrade", just replace wabmcopy.exe with the new one. (remember to also replace it in the ref. directory)

[MasterViVi]

*hugs chris_31* Finally!

Can't test it yet, I'm on my old PC which runs on 98SE (and runs WA5 w/ modern skin surprisingly well).

[chris_31]

YABFR (yet another bugfix release).

[XanDaMan]

Why should I use thiss...and not the profile plug-in...

[d3x7r0]

Because this is simple enough to work without a sweat if you simple want to separate you Winamp config from the other users accounts in your windows.

Simple as that