This document is to show some simple tests that you can perform to try to find out what might be causing weird issues like:
- XXX application works fine for everyone but one user on a specific system
- XXX application never works for a specific user no matter which system they logon to
- XXX application doesn’t work for anyone on a specific system
- XXX application only works for admins on a specific system
I put it together for the company I am consulting at because I kept having to walk the support staff through the same troubleshooting procedures over and over. Some of these tests only apply if you are using redirected Application Data.
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There are two tests that you should do before anything else.
- Logon to another system as the user and try it.
- Logon to that system as another user with the same access rights and try it.
#1 Succeeds - #2 Succeeds
You are probably looking at an issue with the local profile on the system that isn’t working. You need to logon as an administrator and delete the user’s profile. Do not just delete the files under ‘Documents and Settings’. Make sure you go to My Computer->Properties->Advanced->User Profiles and delete their profile there. You may want to make a backup of the user’s folder in ‘Documents and Settings’ before you delete their profile.
#1 Fails - #2 Succeeds
There is probably an issue with something in the redirected Application Data for the user. I usually just have the user logoff and rename their existing Application Data folder. Create a new one and have them try it out. You may want to try copying folders back into their “new” folder from the backup one at a time to isolate exactly what is causing the problem.
#1 Succeeds - #2 Fails
Here is where things get a little bit trickier. At this point, we should be pretty sure that there is an issue with that particular system. The next test to try is:
- Logon as an administrator (not the local Admin) and try it
If it fails as an administrator, the application is probably just corrupt and needed to be uninstalled/re-installed. There is a small possibility that the problem could be caused by a Group Policy that is being applied to the standard accounts but not to your Admin account since they usually have most Group Policies blocked.
You could try logging on as the local administrator to see if it works for that account. If it does, you are probably looking at a Group Policy setting that is being applied to all users that might be causing the issue.
If it succeeds as an administrator, you are most likely looking at a permissions issue. The best thing to do at this point is copy RegMon/FileMon to the C: drive and logon as a standard user. Do a RUNAS for both FileMon and RegMon and launch the application as the user. Once the application fails, stop logging for both FileMon and RegMon and review the logs for any ‘Access Denied’ errors. This should tell you where in the file system and/or registry you need to grant the user Modify permissions.