Windows 7 Won't Save Application Filtering Settings

I have recently installed version 2.07 on my Windows 7 machine and I am having problems getting it to save my authorized or blocked applications and other settings. It seems the only way for it to save this information is to start it with "Run as Administrator", however, Windows 7 does not allow programs to start with the system that are set to be run as an administrator. Because of this, each time I reboot the system, the applications that I have either authorized or blocked access to the internet are not saved and I have to reauthorize them or reblock them every time I reboot.

What I am wondering is how can I get LnS to start with the system and be able to save my authorized and blocked applications with each reboot?

 

Look ‘n’ Stop shouldn’t have any difficulties saving customizations and including changes with Application filtering list under non-administrator privileges.

If the computer is restarting or shutting down, and if Windows shutdown process been poorly tweaked.., it could have Look ‘n’ Stop application quickly forced-closed before finishing the Look ‘n’ Stop application savings.

... you could try simply making changes, before shutting down or restarting Windows, manually exit Look ‘n’ Stop application first. This may very well be a quick workaround...

 

It definitely has something to do with administrator rights because if I start it manually as an administrator, it saves all the settings. Also, if I exit it after being started with the system without administrator rights, it doesn't save the settings either. I even had to manually start it as an administrator and exit it to get it to save my license information.

 

This probably because the "Registry keys" settings in the "options" tab is set to "Common to all users". This works only when the application is started as an administrator.
Restart again Look 'n' Stop in admin mode, select "Per user", press "Apply" and exit the application.
Start Look 'n' Stop normally, and settings should be now properly saved & retrieved.

Regards,

Frederic

 

Similar situation here:

- new installation of Windows 7
- 1 Administrator account
- 2 limited user accounts

- after installation & registration of LNS as Administrator I switched to the limited user account and tried to save a few new settings in LNS, which failed as it did for EarlCrapstone.
- Yes Frederic, my registry keys in options are set to "Common to all users"

My workaround is (before reading this thread): I looked up the *.rls file in the Administrator account and changed the read/write permission for this file. Now all users are allowed to write this file. This works

2 questions though:
1.) Does my little hack makes sense in regard to the general security of the system?
2.) What advantages/disadvantages will have a setting: safe "per user"?? Basically, I will get one *.rls files for each user on this machine. My concern is that it will be hard to control the settings of LNS for the other users by the Admin (by me)...

Thanks,
Thomas

P.S: Just realized that EarlCrapstone asks about "Application filtering" settings, while my little hack affects "Internet filtering"! However, normally I do not change any "Application filtering" settings as a "limited user"....

 

Hi Thomas,

The advantage is a limited user account will not be able to modify the ruleset the admin account will use.
For instance if a critical port is open by a limited user account, and if this port is used by a troyan, with your change, the admin account will be affected too.
If you are using all accounts yourself, and you are taking the same (good ) decisions about the ruleset content whatever the account, then I think the security risk is limited.
If limited user accounts are used by some other people, it could be not safe to let them decide the ruleset the admin account will use.

Regards,

Frederic

 

Sorry I forgot to update my progress in this thread. But I reinstalled it and copied my ruleset file to looknstop folder in AppData instead of the looknstop folder in Program Files where I previously had it. I don't know if this had anything to do with m problem, however, it works perfectly now so I'm happy!

 

This is supposed to be done automatically.
When a new user starts using Look 'n' Stop, the default rulesets are copied from Look 'n' Stop installation folder to E:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\looknstop

Regards,

Frederic