OMNIC or Paradigm Menu Commands Not Following Settings from Security Administration for a User in the Administrators Group.

Issue

A users has configured the access control settings in Security Administration using the built-in Users and Administrators groups.  When a user account opens OMNIC or Paradigm the settings are correct, but when someone in the Administrators group opens the software, they are not seeing the commands that they should.

Environment

OMNIC v9

Paradigm v2

Security Suite v2

Windows 10

Resolution

Create a custom Windows or Active Directory group (i.e. FTIR Administrators) and replace the built-in Administrators group with the custom group.

Analysis

When the built-in Administrators group is used in the Security Administration Access Control settings, the user will only be able to see these commands in the software if they open the program with elevated rights.  This involves right clicking on the program shortcut and choosing the "Run as administrator" command. 

This behavior of Windows can cause a user to think that the Security Administration settings are not being followed, but that is not the case.  If using the "Run as Administrator" command allows the user to see the correct menu commands, then there is no problem with the software.

To prevent confusion that is caused by this Windows behavior, follow the suggestion in the Resolution section to create custom groups.  Certain accounts can still be a local administrator, but by using a custom group, confusion can be avoided and the correct result will occur when OMNIC or Paradigm software is opened.

Cause

In Windows 10, when a program is opened, Windows will always try to open that program with the lowest rights possible.  This means that if an account is in the local Administrators group, but the program can be opened under just standard users rights, Windows will open as if the account is a standard User account.  

To ensure the program is opened with Administrator rights, the user would have to right click on the program and choose the "Run as administrator" command.  This forces Windows to elevate the program to open with Administrator rights.