Today I go the new, 1.0.0.92, version of Google Talk. There are a few new features, avatar images and chat window themes. Looks really neat.
Unfortunately it does not work 100% with non-admin accounts. Only the classic chat window theme is available. Not sure what goes wrong, it has happened on all my computers, but at least there is a simple fix.
Find the google talk settings directory on the administrator account used to install google talk, when logged in with that account.The “local settings” part is localized, so for a swedish OS it is “lokala inställningar” instead.
c:\document and settings\username\local settings\application data\google\google talk
Then copy the themes directory to the same location for any non-admin accounts and change the permissions on the directory to match the parent directory. And that’s it.
Great! So far, how much evil spyware and how many viruses have you dodged by running as a limited user?
And how much time has been wasted.. hrmpf, spent fixing glitches and errors?
I thought one of the main reasons to avoid spyware/viruses was to have a properly functioning computer, so although using an account with limited privileges increases security it also prevents a large proportion of software to run well or at all.
Sum it up, and instead of a theoretical risk of infection, or your browser-habits being monitored by an unscrupulous business you have a semi-functional system and have had to replace lots of your software.
Since all that software is broken I don’t mind replacing it at all. And having to do little fixes like this while testing beta quality software (gtalk) isn’t all that bothersome, or time consuming.