Skin Tool in Vista

[Thunderball]

I thought I would try to touch up the '50s Diner' skin, so I fired up the skin tool on my new Vista based laptop. I made some changes, saved them, and the skin runs in Freebox. However, I can see that the skin's  .ini files aren't being updated. The changes are clearly being saved - I just can't figure out where!

If I run Skin Tool 'as Administrator', the file dates actually change when I save a change - but now I've already made all of the changes I want - I don't want to recreate them running as admin.

Anybody know where those files are being saved to?

[Barcrest]

Damn that's really odd... I couldn't say because freebox looks for them in the skin. That really is odd, i don't have vista to even check i sold my laptop today 

[Thunderball]

Well, after digging around, I answered my own question. For security reasons, Vista doesn't allow an application to write to the 'Program Files' directory - so the files go to the Vista 'Virtual Store' - in this case: c:\users\user\appdata\local\virtualstore\Program Files\Freebox V4\Skins\fink50sDiner. It was driving me crazy, because I'd make an edit to the skin at work, and carry it home to try there - and nothing changed!

Anyway, I have the skins more or less working OK in V4 - some things I can't edit in the Skin Tool, like the 6 album cover file - and I haven't quite figured out how to fix the ini file manually.

So, if anyone wants them, maybe kizer or someone will host them 

[Barcrest]

You can mail them to me if you wish and i'll get them uploaded..

[Thunderball]

Ok - I'll do that right now.

FYI, I also found that if I run Skin Tool as Administrator, the files write correctly to the normal location.

[GMac]

Thunderball,  this all relates to how Windows Vista handles security.  There is a new feature in Vista called UAC (User Access Control)  Basically when you log on as an administrator you are given two security tokens.  Token 1 acts as a normal user and provides programs with standard user privaleges.  When a program attempts to do something that requires more than user privalege you are presented with a confirmation box, if you accept the prompt you are then operating using Token 2 which is full admin access and allowing the program to operate as an administrative function.

As you have figured out the Skins write to the program files directory which is a restricted area for windows, so rather than fall over and cause the program to abort, windows fools the program to thinking it is writing to the program files folder when in fact it is actually writing to the seperate location on the hard drive. 

You can disable this behaviour.

1) Amend the properties of the Skin Tool & E-Tunes applications to run as an administrator.  Navigate to the Program Files\E-Tunes Jukebox folder and right click on e-touch5.exe

Now select the compatability tab and select the "Show Settings for All Users" button.  Accept the prompt and on the screen select compatability mode "Windows XP (service Pack 2).  Then enable the "Run program as an administrator" box.

You will need to repeat this for Config4.exe and Skintool.exe

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That will ensure that these programs are allowed to write to the program files folder.  However you will still get a UAC prompt which is annoying.  This can be disabled, of course you lose an element of protection against other untrusted programmes.

Disable UAC.  You will find the option for this in control panel > User Acounts > User Accounts > Turn on or off User Account Control.  This will require a reboot but when you have done this you will not get any UAC prompts.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc709691.aspx

[Thunderball]

Great advice GMac, thanks. I now have UAC turned off. Anyway, I don't care what anyone says, Vista causes more problems than it's worth. I like the look, and new features, but there are some odd behaviors that can't be explained - and those drive me crazy.

[Barcrest]

Really for a juke you should just run tiny XP. It's quicker and gives less problems.