Pro Tools Windows NonAdmin Guide Version 8.0
Legal Notices This guide is copyrighted 2008 by Digidesign, a division of Avid Technology, Inc. (hereafter Digidesign ), with all rights reserved. Under copyright laws, this guide may not be duplicated in whole or in part without the written consent of Digidesign. 003, 96 I/O, 96i I/O, 192 Digital I/O, 192 I/O, 888 24 I/O, 882 20 I/O, 1622 I/O, 24-Bit ADAT Bridge I/O, AudioSuite, Avid, Avid DNA, Avid Mojo, Avid Unity, Avid Unity ISIS, Avid Xpress, AVoption, Axiom, Beat Detective, Bomb Factory, Bruno, C 24, Command 8, Control 24, D-Command, D-Control, D-Fi, D-fx, D-Show, D-Verb, DAE, Digi 002, DigiBase, DigiDelivery, Digidesign, Digidesign Audio Engine, Digidesign Intelligent Noise Reduction, Digidesign TDM Bus, DigiDrive, DigiRack, DigiTest, DigiTranslator, DINR, D-Show, DV Toolkit, EditPack, Eleven, HD Core, HD Process, Hybrid, Impact, Interplay, LoFi, M-Audio, MachineControl, Maxim, Mbox, MediaComposer, MIDI I/O, MIX, MultiShell, Nitris, OMF, OMF Interchange, PRE, ProControl, Pro Tools M-Powered, Pro Tools, Pro Tools HD, Pro Tools LE, QuickPunch, Recti-Fi, Reel Tape, Reso, Reverb One, ReVibe, RTAS, Sibelius, Smack!, SoundReplacer, Sound Designer II, Strike, Structure, SYNC HD, SYNC I/O, Synchronic, TL Aggro, TL AutoPan, TL Drum Rehab, TL Everyphase, TL Fauxlder, TL In Tune, TL MasterMeter, TL Metro, TL Space, TL Utilities, Transfuser, Trillium Lane Labs, Vari-Fi Velvet, X-Form, and XMON are trademarks or registered trademarks of Digidesign and/or Avid Technology, Inc. Xpand! is Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Product features, specifications, system requirements, and availability are subject to change without notice. Guide Part Number 9329-59305-00 REV A 11/08 Documentation Feedback At Digidesign, we're always looking for ways to improve our documentation. If you have comments, corrections, or suggestions regarding our documentation, email us at techpubs@digidesign.com.
Using Pro Tools with a Non-Administrator Account Pro Tools on Windows allows the use of either administrator or non-administrator accounts. Allowing Pro Tools to work with a non-administrator account gives schools and other facilities with multiple Pro Tools users greater flexibility. It enables multiple engineers or students to work with Pro Tools while limiting their ability to install software or access local disk and server locations that should remain restricted. Installation and Operation Installation and operation of Pro Tools with a non-administrator user account follows the same procedures presented in the Setup Guide, Pro Tools Reference Guide, and other documentation. When installing and using Pro Tools, keep in mind the following: Pro Tools requires an Administrator for installation. Pro Tools lets users save their Pro Tools User Preferences separately. Individual versions of Pro Tools Preferences will be stored in each user s Home directory (within the Documents and Settings directory) if they alter the existing Pro Tools Preferences. As with previous Pro Tools releases, users still have global Read/Write privileges on all Pro Tools related settings other than the Pro Tools user Preferences referenced above. However, users of non-administrator accounts will have their file Read/Write privileges limited by Windows. Using Pro Tools with a Non-Administrator Account 1
Saving Files With a Non- Administrator Account on Windows XP File Saving Users of non-administrator accounts with Pro Tools will be limited to saving sessions and audio files to folders within their Home directory. Existing folders in a user s Home directory include: My Documents Desktop A typical workflow for non-administrator account users is to write their Pro Tools files to their My Documents folder. Standard account users working with Pro Tools who try to Save a Session, Save an audio file, or Save Session Copy In will not be able to save a session unless they choose to write the file or files to one of the folder locations in their Home directory. Saving files and recording on an internal drive will work for small- to medium-sized sessions. For larger sessions requiring many tracks and higher sample rates, external Firewire or SCSI drives may be required. Users requiring external drive access will need to ensure they have Read/Write permissions set to use these drives if logged in using a non-administrator account. Pro Tools 6.7 and higher grants read and write privileges to Everyone for every new file and session it creates. Sessions created with lower versions of Pro Tools may need to have their permissions changed to allow access by other users. Creating Non-Administrator Accounts for Pro Tools Users During Pro Tools installation, the installer automatically creates a user group called Pro Tools Users. By default, all Pro Tools users are part of the Pro Tools Users group, which enables full use of the Pro Tools system. This following section describes how the Pro Tools installer configures your machine for non-administrator use. This section is intended for system administrators to determine the additional security risk this configuration causes on their systems. The actions described below are automatically performed by the installer and described here for informational purposes only. Changing installation settings may cause Pro Tools to not launch or work properly. The installer will try to limit the rights granted to those that are necessary for running Pro Tools only, however we cannot guarantee that granting these rights will not expose the system to potential security risks or disruptions from malicious users. When installing Pro Tools on a Windows system, the installer does the following: 1 The installer creates a group named Pro Tools Users group (if one does not already exist). 2 The installer adds Everyone to the Pro Tools Users group. This allows Pro Tools to be run by any user on the system. Administrators who wish to restrict access to Pro Tools should remove Everyone from the group and add specific user names for users allowed to run Pro Tools. 2 Windows NonAdmin Guide
3 The installer assigns SeIncreaseBasePriorityPrivilege to the Pro Tools Users group. 4 The installer creates the registry key HKLM\Software\Digidesign (if it does not already exist). 5 The installer grants full control to HKLM\Software\Digidesign and all its subkeys for the Pro Tools Users group. In addition, the installer denies delete, write permissions, and write owner access to the root HKLM\Software\ Digidesign key for the Pro Tools Users group to prevent users from accidentally removing the registry key. 6 Every directory and file created by the Pro Tools Installer will be created with read permissions. 7 The installer grants Pro Tools Users subdirectory creation rights to the Pro Tools and DAE directories. 8 The installer grants Pro Tools Users file creation rights to the DAE directory. 9 The installer restricts the following directories containing executable content to read-only for the Pro Tools Users group: DAE\Plug-ins DAE\Plug-ins (Unused) DAE\Codecs DAE\Controllers Although the installer will try to prohibit write access to executable content necessary for running Pro Tools, the effectiveness of these settings may be altered by access control entries inherited from the parent folder where Pro Tools is installed. Faster Record Allocation Times on Non-Administrator Accounts Pro Tools includes optimizations to reduce record allocation times when Windows users are logged in with administrator accounts. These optimizations can also be enabled for non-administrator accounts by following the steps below. These changes provide non-administrators with access to the Disk Management section of the Computer Management Tool, where you can format, partition, and assign driver letters to drives. To enable faster record allocation times on nonadministrator accounts: 1 Choose Start > Control Panel. 2 Launch Administrator Tools. 3 Double-click Local Security Policy. 4 Under Security Settings/Local Policies, doubleclick User Rights Assignments. 5 Double-click Perform volume maintenance tasks. 6 Add users or groups that use Pro Tools to the list. 7 Click Ok. Using Pro Tools with a Non-Administrator Account 3
www.digidesign.com DIGIDESIGN 2001 Junipero Serra Boulevard Daly City, CA 94014-3886 USA Tel: 650.731.6300 Fax: 650.731.6399 TECHNICAL SUPPORT (USA) Tel: 650.731.6100 Fax: 650.731.6375 PRODUCT INFORMATION (USA) Tel: 800.333.2137 INTERNATIONAL OFFICES Visit the Digidesign website for contact information