Allow Certain Program Installs on SBS 2003

Hello All,
I have a question that I am having a hard time with. I work at a
Dealership and our SBS 2003 is blocking access to a parts department computer
when the user tries to install a monthly update to the parts catalog system.
I know if I give the user admin rights, it will work fine, but of course that
is not a good practice. It would be nice if there was a place to show what
we being blocked when the user tries to do something that group policy, or
the server prevents.

Does anyone know where I might be able to allow that program to install
perhaps with group policy or some other way? I have looked in the even
viewer on workstation PC and this is what I see:

Product: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition -- Error 1920. Service
'SQL Server VSS Writer' (SQLWriter) failed to start. Verify that you have
sufficient privileges to start system services. Or This:

Product: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition - Update 'GDR 3068 for
SQL Server Database Services 2005 ENU (KB948109)' could not be installed.
Error code 1603. Additional information is available in the log file
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Setup
Bootstrap\LOG\Hotfix\SQL9_Hotfix_KB948109_sqlrun_sql.msp.log.

I have also looked in the Server's Event Viewer and have found nothing to
indicate that it is blocking, or preventing the installation of this program.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!!

Keith <Keith@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> Hello All,
> I have a question that I am having a hard time with. I work at a
> Dealership and our SBS 2003 is blocking access to a parts department
> computer

This is a workstation on your domain, right? SBS isn't blocking access to
it.

> when the user tries to install a monthly update to the parts
> catalog system. I know if I give the user admin rights, it will work
> fine, but of course that is not a good practice. It would be nice
> if there was a place to show what we being blocked when the user
> tries to do something that group policy, or the server prevents.

There's no log of an attempted software installation on a workstation ...nor
on a server, for that matter.
>
> Does anyone know where I might be able to allow that program to
> install perhaps with group policy or some other way?

You could try Process Monitor from Sysinternals (now Microsoft) to see where
the app/update expects to have access. Again, though I am presuming you're
trying to let a user update something on /from a workstation and not on your
server.

> I have looked
> in the even viewer on workstation PC and this is what I see:
>
> Product: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition -- Error 1920.
> Service 'SQL Server VSS Writer' (SQLWriter) failed to start. Verify
> that you have sufficient privileges to start system services. Or
> This:
>
> Product: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition - Update 'GDR 3068
> for SQL Server Database Services 2005 ENU (KB948109)' could not be
> installed. Error code 1603. Additional information is available in
> the log file C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Setup
> Bootstrap\LOG\Hotfix\SQL9_Hotfix_KB948109_sqlrun_sql.msp.log.
>
> I have also looked in the Server's Event Viewer and have found
> nothing to indicate that it is blocking, or preventing the
> installation of this program.

No, you won't see anything logged on the server, if you're trying to do an
install on a workstation. The server isn't blocking this.

>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!!

Unless the software developer has some workaround, the only way to do this
is to add the user to the local administrators group on the workstation in
question. You might start out by using the local Power Users group instead.
No, not best practice, but sometimes necessary...unless this is something
you can just do yourself once a month when your catalog needs updating.