COMMAND

    kernel

SYSTEMS AFFECTED

    Win 2000

PROBLEM

    Steve  Mansfield  found  following.   Came  across  the  following
    interesting  'features'  in  W2K  Prof  (original and SP1).  There
    doesn't seem to be anything about them on Technet.

    Imagine you  have a  shared machine  (no domain)  with a number of
    users already setup with security settings, which programs to  use
    for mail etc.

    You add a  new user and  the default group  membership is 'users'.
    You log  in as  them to  setup email  etc. If  you try to setup up
    Outlook Express as  that user you  will get a  message saying that
    some errors are being generated  and get kicked out.   After trial
    and  error  Steve  has  found  that  the  minimum  group level for
    setting up Outlook  Express is 'power  user', so you  have to give
    your new  user higher  permissions, set  them up  and then  demote
    them.

    This has a knock on  problem and is the cross  pollination aspect.
    If while logged on  as the new 'power  user' you change, say,  the
    default email  program and  the content  settings, these (changed)
    settings will be enacted for ALL the machine users.  Not what  was
    intended, surely.   So if you  have, say, 10  users with different
    settings  adding  just  one  user  would require manually changing
    them all back.

    Also on the subject of security level problems there is a  problem
    with  Symantec  Fax  Starter  Edition  supplied with Outlook 2000.
    You  cannot  fax  if  the  curent  user has permissions lower than
    'power user'. If a 'user' is  logged in and tries to fax  they get
    a dialog with no  text but a red  traingle and an OK  button.  The
    fax job disappears.  Again surely not what was intended.

SOLUTION

    Nothing yet.