My take on this that the GPU's inherent math inaccuracy would tend to limit it to only a few projects.

I know that Dr. Anderson has approached Microsoft a couple of times about porting Boinc to the XBox. When he first approached them a year ago they were not interested. When last contacted in the last couple of months they said they would think about it.

I don't think even the DOA would be able to do something like that... this is the stuff of MOVIES.
No windows or unix? no TCP/IP? Custom OS'? Special custom intruder software? A staff of IT's constantly monitoring the system?

I mean come on, this is ludicrous.
I am certain it will be extremely secure, it also would not be practical. and by the way, I never saw the point of the whole "staff looking over the system".

... [school stuff removed] ...

Oh, I just noticed that we were cracked with my ITelepathy. Never mind that we are talking about billions of packets going through computers that runs billions of cycles per second, I can FEEL it. And I am gonna encrypt the genetic dimeticulous proactive firewall to stop it... OH NO, they are cracking the FIREWALL. I must sit here at the screen and type furiously to stop it, because I am THAT GOOD!

What?! Have you not worked for a bank, a federal monetary organisation or an airline????? Intruder software has been running on production (and school) systems since the early 1980's that I know of and I made no mention of custom made OS'es. I just explained several real world environments I've worked in. E-mail Northwest Airlines and ask them a few questions about IT security, including what their WAN uses for a protocol (particularly the one they share with other airlines around the world). Try a one of your national banks or the central bank.

If you like, e-mail dsd.gov.au and ask for a copy of their brief summary of guidelines for Internet security for commercial suppliers.

What custom OS'es, that still has me stumped. You don't mean VMS do you? That has been around for years, nearly as many as me.

Cracking a good site is going to be hard. It wont use Windows or Unix. It may not even use TCP/IP. They will use intruder software (fun to watch), firewalls, gateway boxes just to present a different OS to crackers. Proper IT staff, with proper jobs including people who just monitor security. Getting into the system may not be impossible but it would be extremely difficult.

Cracking a good site is going to be hard. It wont use Windows or Unix. It may not even use TCP/IP. They will use intruder software (fun to watch), firewalls, gateway boxes just to present a different OS to crackers. Proper IT staff, with proper jobs including people who just monitor security. Getting into the system may not be impossible but it would be extremely difficult.

G'day Ageless,
Yeah, I thought about that about 12 hours after I posted! What I should have said is, "who could write an Operating System (any version of Windows) that would allow an application to bring itself down? Only Microsoft!"

But then I remembered Primos, man that really sucked. Then I struggled to recall any others. :)

Pity Bill and his mates didn't steal stability and robustness from DEC's VAX/VMS PDP 11 (or 8?) they ripped off most the DOS commands from.

I miss VMS sooooo much! :-(

You don't have a password. That is the beginning and end of your problems.

I guessed that perhaps you had installed Vista as an upgrade because your account and password setup were so daft. If that was your choice, then, obviously, I'm wrong - and you will have to deal with the limitations, or set your computer up more securely.

Sorry, we aren't going to sacrifice security for your convenience.

You can learn about how UAC is supposed to work on TechNet. Don't judge the feature by how it behaves with your insecure setup. If you insist on blaming BOINC for your problems, then forgive me if we ignore you.

By default, the installer will install as a service without requiring you to mess around with passwords or accounts. It will be entirely automated. If you want to do it manually, you will still need a password for the account you use (that's a Windows limitation - and a sensible one) but I will try to improve the error handling for that case.

UAC is the feature that allows Windows to require passwords for installs and so on, just like the way you describe Macs as working. It's called Admin approval mode. It's not going to be much use if you don't *have* an Admin password, though!

Ideally, you should set up an Administrator password, and a separate (user) account for day to day use (without a password). You can then hide the Admin account from the Welcome screen, and it should log in the user account automatically. UAC will also work correctly, asking for your Admin password when you want to perform Admin functions such as installing software.

I think a clean Vista install is set up something like that, but upgrades are a bit more messy, hence your problems.

in xp if you navigate here:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogonSpecialAccountsUserList]

and create a dword (value=0) with the same name as the username you want to hide, then it will be hidden.

I use this batch file to create a hidden user account called 'Sandbox':

net user Sandbox Password /add && net localgroup administrators Sandbox /add
echo Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00> c:hide.reg
echo [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogonSpecialAccountsUserList]>> c:hide.reg
echo "Sandbox"=dword:00000000>> c:hide.reg
REGEDIT /S c:hide.REG
DEL /Q c:hide.REG

Also, in XP, to make a user automatically log-in in you use Run > 'control userpasswords2'. Don't know whether it's changed in Vista tho...

HTH
Danny

Any ideas on how to make it a service (rather then just hidden) would also be appreciated.

Create a separate admin account (with a password) to do the installation from? Once BOINC has been installed as a service it shouldn’t care which account is logged in.