When I used to participate in Seti@Home, I could install BOINC on a machine using either my email/pw OR a crazy unique number and a pw.

I would like to get my family members to run RAH but I fear that if I give out my email/pw, someone may be a joker and go in and screw around with my profile/preferences. Or, maybe there is no danger...?

How do I do this? Yes, I know I can tell my family to all create their own accounts, but they will never take the time to do that...they want to be in and out of the install in a few minutes...not creating accounts and membership stuff, etc.

Can I just send them:
C:Program FilesBOINCaccount_boinc.bakerlab.org_rosetta.xml

and tell them to plop it in the directory immediately after installing BOINC?

Thanks so much in advance!

-Eric

p.s. these are on Windows platforms.

I use this: http://www.thelazyslug.com/boinc_building_the_mst.htm

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i've just found a really annoying bug on this forum - i was editing the above post and then passed the 1hr mark so my edit has disappeared! grrr...

i'll post an easy way to set up a self-extracting zip that does everything tonight if i get chance. It'll still need the mst creating from the lazy slug's guide though...

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thanks...but I am not sure how easy your installer/zip file will be. Can you elaborate? Remember, I am trying to make this as simple as possible for low-tech people. :)

My thought was:

1)tell them to run the BOINC installer and take all the defaults
2)copy the XML file into the BOINC directory
3)make the appropriate Preferences changes


The only problem I can foresee is emailing an XML file...I think most email packages will rip it off thinking it is a virus or make it a hassle to save off the email. So I can rename it to .ZZZ and tell them to rename it to .XML. That can get complicated for people who have Windows set up to hide file extensions.

with a self extracting zip its just a case of them double-clicking it and that's it.

The steps are:

1. Create the BOINC mst with your credentials, project selection etc.
2. Create a batch file that will create a hidden passworded user account to run BOINC under
3. Add both of these to a self-extracting zip file that will then run the above files when double-clicked.

It's a bit more work for you (although only takes 15 mins to set up), but a lot more straightforward for the user.

Step 1: see the lazyslugguide linked in my original post.
Step 2: save this as a batch file (e.g. makeusr.bat):

rem @echo off
net user USERNAME PASSWORD /add && net localgroup administrators USERNAME /add
echo Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00> c:hide.reg
echo [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogonSpecialAccountsUserList]>> c:hide.reg
echo "USERNAME"=dword:00000000>> c:hide.reg
REGEDIT /S c:hide.REG
DEL /Q c:hide.REG
start boincinst.mst

Step 3: Add the mst and the bat file to a self-extracting zip file using winzip and set it to run the batch file when its run.

I'll try and post more later if you need.

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