On Mon, 2009-09-21 at 10:46 -0500, DaVince wrote: > > Please, is there any simple way to make wine programs I have > installed as admin, available to all users on my desktop computer? > Anything that works is unlikely to be simple because, in general, Windows applications aren't set up to allow multiple access to any data file that's updated by the application. That said, it should be possible to move drive_c and all the directories and files inside it from an application-specific wine prefix to a shared location, set its permissions to give all authorised users read and execute permissions and then replace drive_c in that prefix with a symlink to the shared drive_c directory structure. Now the prefix can be copied to the other authorised users $HOME directories. However, there are things which will stop this working: - the common drive_c *must not* contain any user-updatable configuration information such as user-specific preferences or private information. - all user created and updatable data files must be in the user's $HOME directory or in the replicated stub of the prefix. - the application *must not* default to placing user-created files in its installation directory. If any of the above are true, you have a can of worms if you go ahead because windows applications are typically written to assume that only one user is using the application at a time. This is cannot be guaranteed in a Linux system and the following problems cannot be prevented: - anybody's user preferences and specific configuration can be read and changed by anybody else using the application. - its likely that there will be file access problems due to lack of file locking mechanisms in the application. - you can't stop a user from maliciously or accidentally corrupting the application if it defaults to storing application generated data in the installation directory and you permit this access. - you'll have trouble explaining to some users why they can't use default storage folders if the default is the installation directory and you have denied update access to this area. Martin
