Preventing Chrome Extension Uninstallation? - windows

My company has Chrome with our custom extension running on windows machines.
Our goal is to launch chrome locally on our machines with our extension running at all times. Our users are constantly looking to uninstall our extension.
Our current approach is to utilize the ExtensionInstallForceList registry key. This sort of works:
Right now, one can still click into C:\WM_0.0 and delete the folder. Once the folder is deleted, this extension is gone.
So we tried the following:
Create a windows account "Client"
Assign "Client" to "Client Group"
Change the permission C:\WM_0.0 to Deny Write
Log out and login to the machine again as Client.
Once I login to my windows machine as Client, I can no longer load my extension:
I tried to change the folder's permission to Full Control for both Users and Client Group but I am still seeing this error in Chrome.
1. How can I load this extension successfully given my current set of circumstances?
2. Is there a better way to do this?

Related

How to access SharePoint files from a remote windows machine?

I have a few files in certain SharePoint folders that I would like to access from a Windows (Virtual Machine) remote machine. As a test, I copied the "link" of a SharePoint Excel file and used it in the WindowsVM browser and I connected successfully and opened the file.
I also tried to map a SharePoint folder's "link" within WindowsVM Folder Explorer/Network but I am getting the below error msg
Is there a way to accomplish this?
Thank you
To be able to map a SharePoint site as a network drive (this uses WebDAV) please make sure:
The SharePoint site url is added to trusted sites list in Internet Option -> Security -> Trusted sites.
Use Internet Explorer to navigate to the SharePoint site and sign-in using your credentials and leave the browser open (this should not be required but it helps somehow)
Now try to map the site as a network drive.
If the above does not resolve the issue (and assuming you are running Windows 10) you can additionally navigate to Settings -> Accounts -> Add a work or school account.
Edit:
If you only have Edge browser (no IE) - you'll need to open the SharePoint site in IE compatibility mode on Edge and login-in (SharePoint looks ugly in this mode). Once this is done continue to map the drive.

Windows: XAMPP install folder ini file permission error, Access denied upon configuration save

After installing XAMPP to Windows 10 (all default/recommended installation attributes), I now have an issue changing its configuration after opening it.
Error: Cannot create file "C:\xampp\xampp-control.ini".
Access is denied
Clicking Save to a change in Configuration of Control Panel:
This "Configuration of Control Panel" box opens after clicking the "Config" button at the top right of the running XAMPP app:
I've tried a suggestion to run the XAMPP app with Administrator (elevated) access… but that seems like a major security issue, considering I don't know exactly what XAMPP would or could do with my files that require that permission, whether intended by the people who run XAMPP or not.
I've tried re-installing to another folder, like to C:\Users\Me, or a sub-folder like Documents or a custom one, but I just got different permissions issues that I struggled to figure out.
If you know a solution that worked for you, that avoided running XAMPP with Admin privileges, please let me know. I've gone through a handful of seemingly-related questions here but they seem to be related to MySQL/PHP questions and not Windows file system permissions.
I found a solution after noticing that the file already existed from apparently a past workaround I tried with running XAMPP as Admin... based on the permissions of the file being different than its parent folder. I discovered this by right-clicking the xampp folder or the xampp-control.ini file then selecting Properties and clicking the Security tab, then clicking into each attached user account's permissions.
So, my C:\xampp folder has these permissions: for Admin, basically full access; for my user account, Read, Execute, and Write.
The xampp-control.ini file has only Admin permissions; my user account is not attached to it.
Adding my user account to the xampp-control.ini file's Security, and adding Write permission then allowed XAMPP's config panel to save my changes.
Note that I typed my username into the "Enter the object names to select" box, then clicked Check Names; this auto-populated my username reference (?), though I'm not sure how it would work if it finds multiple results. Then I could click OK to get back to the Permissions box to add "Modify" and "Write" for it. I'm completely OK giving my user account permission to modify and write to this file through the XAMPP app.
Now, that fixes that file for that scenario; now I'm wondering if there will be other permissions issues with other files, because I noticed some other files (that I checked randomly) don't all share the same permissions for my user account!
Maybe I should have instead modified the xampp folder's permissions recursively to give my user account Write and/or Modify access (I'm not sure of the difference, Windows permissions seem far more complicated to understand and use than Linux's and Mac's do).
I think the file permissions were all set by XAMPP during install; I don't know yet that expanding permissions on certain files will not create new problems...
I found a solution after noticing that error, here is my solution
go to xampp installation folder on the c drive
Xampp Destination
then find xammp control panel.exe
Xampp Control Panel
then right click and go to properties(or press ALT+ENTER)
Click Properties
then go to compatibility and enable Run this program as an administrator
Compatibility tab
Your Problem is now fixed

Virtual Shared Driver Indexing problems

We just virtualized a Windows server in Azure and everything in working fine on Client side, but we are not being able to solve the indexing search problem.
When you have a local drive, Windows can index the path and searches works fine using Windows menu/search box in task bar. But for shared drives it seems to fail.
In Windows Explorer the search pretends to work, but it takes forever to find a file or folder. And sometimes it just won't move anywhere. So it is not an option for users since them are used to search using menu bar.
We have tried to change drive properties in Right button to Shared Driver > "Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties, but it was already enabled.
When we try to disable it, it prompts an error saying that the user doesn't have permission to do it, but it does anyway. And when we try to re-enable, the message prompts again, but it is enabled with no problem at all. But once again, nothing changes and Initial Menu Search just won't work.
Does anyone knows if there is a solution for that?
For me it seems to be an server setup since I see that permission error, but, as far as I know, if the shared driver is already mounted, I can't see a reason why Windows can't index it.
Ps.1: In the shared drive security tab, the System has full permissions.
Ps.2: If there is a solution for this, is that possible to solve it on the Windows server Side so we won't need to access client by client to change it manually?
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Please check the following setting and see.
1.First thing is to check network location is being indexed. open File Explorer right-click on the mapped network drive that you need to index, then select the Properties and Make sure that, the Allow Files on this Drive to Have Contents Indexed checkbox is selected.
You have already done this step
2.try to check the search options for network drive in file explorer, go to view tab>>click on Options Icon and choose the change folder and search option menu it will open the folder options dialog box and select search tab and make sure first option is not selected
3.check server side Indexing
4.we need to make sure search service needs to be running.
Open services.msc check for the wndows search service and try to restart the service.
5.Go to Settings on the Windows 10 desktop, then click on Search, followed by Searching Windows scroll down and try to run the indexer troubleshooter
Reference https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/shell-experience/fix-problems-in-windows-search

How do I have multiple windows users (non-admins) modify and save the same setting(s)?

Apologies if this is a really simple question...
We have a .NET application that is installed by an administrator, and then run by multiple staff on the same computer with their own login credentials (normal user - non-admin).
Application uses MSI installer and is installed to Program Files folder.
The application needs to have some settings about attached devices to the computer saved as preferences so when a user opens the app these settings are set and the user is not asked for preferences each time. These preferences should not be set per user, rather per computer.
However if user A changes one of these settings on the computer, then when user B logs in they should see the changed setting from user A.
Hence the settings need to be per computer, not per user.
Where in windows 7,8,10 etc. can an application save data that is computer specific not user specific, yet allow users without admin rights to change that data?
We have looked at system temp folder but the computers have GPO policy to regularly remove temp folder content.
Any other ideas?
It takes administrator rights to change the permissions on a registry key inside HKLM, but once that's done, anyone in the group given permission can make modifications.
Obviously don't change permissions on any of the standard keys (e.g. HKLM\Software or HKLM\Classes) but in your own application area (HKLM\Software\YouCorp\YouApp\Attached Devices) it's perfectly fine to adjust permissions the way you like.
You'll just have to include "grant write permission on HKLM\Software\YouCorp\YouApp\Attached Devices to the group Users" as one of the actions of your installer.
If you are allergic to the registry, you can do the same with a subdirectory of your application install (e.g. %ProgramFiles%\YouCorp\YouApp\Device Settings)
Given you are using a .Net application, you could store the information in the app.config file associated with the application.

How to install unpacked extension in firefox & chrome?

i have created extension by using crossrider they gave me xpi & crx file which i extracted and want to install manually by copying data to the browser's extension path.
I've read & tried many posts regarding this but they are not helpful because i think some posts are old & not able to find target paths & registry.
like in many posts they say create the following key in the registry here
32-bit Windows: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Google\Chrome\Extensions
but i couldn't find that on my windows registry & i am using 32bit.
i want something like i copy my extension data to the browser's extension directory & inject some registry value thats all. if it possible then How?
For firefox just add the xpi or unpacked folder to the profile folder. No need for registry so its cross platform.
It can't be automatic as spyware would be all over that. After placing xpi in the extensions folder of the profile, on next startup of Firefox it will prompt saying it found an unauthorized by user add-on, and gives user a chance to enable it, or keep it disabled.
If you want to do it without startup, just launch the file path to the xpi or unpacked folder (if unpacked folder doesnt work, then point it to the install.rdf) in the browser, user will be prompted if they want to install.
There are some registry options though: Install Firefox extension using Windows registry
In Chrome, it's no longer possible to add an extension programmatically on Windows unless the extension is actually published in the Store.
This is for security reasons: previous registry-based (and otherwise) methods were open to malware abuse.
If your extension is published in the store, you can add it semi-automatically via registry. The user will still be asked whether to enable it on the next load.
You can also install extensions silently using Enterprise policy (only if the machine is part of a Windows domain and you have admin rights on the domain policy), on other OSes, or load it unpacked for testing with the --load-extension command line switch (will not persist after Chrome is restarted).
In Chrome go to
chrome://extensions
Enable Developer Mode at the top and click on the button to load an extracted extension.

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