Frankly, after terribad experiences at Microsoft Answers and T-Mobile's community forums, both of which were "kudos forums", I promised myself I would never, ever actively join another "kudos forum" again. I told TH this. Well...the fact that I'm here shows you how desperate I am for a solution.
I am aware, thanks to TH (very appreciative for that generous man), that some of the mods/admins on here know of my situation. I'm the guy that decided to use Backup & Sync two weeks ago, and still can't, courtesy of some weird database issue.
I finally got in touch with an Escalation Engineer, and now it's the weekend. So apparently he's off. Joe, who normally is "the problem solver", is traveling. He's a busy guy now. I get that.
Unfortunately, I'm about out of patience. I'm sick of this.
If I have to bite the bullet and uninstall Windows Live Mesh and move on to SkyDrive, I will. But good lord just tell me now. As much as I don't want to use another trendy new, Windows 8-pushy product on my Windows 7 machine that will likely take 3x as much RAM as Webroot does (and all it does is sync files), at least Microsoft can get me logged in and running.
So, if there is anything that anyone here can do for me this weekend, I'd appreciate it. Maybe a temporary license key that I can use to sync files until the E.E. gets back? I don't know. Because I'm about ready to ask for my 3 licenses to be burned and turned into AV only licenses.
Thanks.
Solved
I'm here...and unhappy!
Best answer by STV0726
Nope, Cohbraz speaks the truth! Thank you for updating with what you saw on Wilders!
The issue is now official resolved and I have been using sync for over 12 hours now.
Mike, what you are referring to was the last time I posted thinking I found a solution, but then the issue came back (which ended up having nothing to do with importing configuration at all).
The resolution Cohbraz quoted was what I said at Wilders but I was very vague.
Essentially, I asked multiple times to verify WSA was compatible with Software Restriction Policies, which it is, and definitely ought to be, but there is a catch. WSA does something different than most programs. It needs to reference DLLs (executable code) from C:ProgramDataWRData. I actually don't think I've EVER experienced this before. Most programs that I install and whitelist into my computing environment are exempt from my restriction policies because they are installed in either Program Files or Program Files (x86) and that is where they reference their DLLs and execute their code from. WSA, however, has the main application there, but needs to call upon DLLs in a subfolder of the path I just described above called "PKG" for the Backup & Sync functionality specifically.
I was working with the very generous, extremely helpful, miracle man, Mr. Joe Jaroch, and on Saturday, we both discovered that when I was installing WSA fresh, it would work, but then as soon as I logged out and back in, regardless of account type, it would "break". Turns out, it wasn't breaking at all. It was working after install only because when you install something with typical UAC settings on Windows Vista/7, when a program runs immediately after install you are still elevated as an admin. WSA runs the core system processes as admin always of course, but the GUI runs as a standard user. Well, it would be most correct to say it runs with privileges of the current user, but because of UAC's Admin Approval Mode, that pretty much means it is running as a standard user except WSA does have built-in code to check if you are an administrator account to grant you access if you use Access Control settings. I'm not entirely sure how they do that, but with all that aside, the GUI runs essentially as a standard user except when you first install it since you are pre-elevated then until you log out and back in. So once Joe and I discovered that, Joe had to go somewhere, but I figured I would try and exempt the WRData from my SRP after I saw DLLs in there. Surely, it immediately worked. That was the solution.
So, if you are experiencing this problem, well, you will have had to know how to set Software Restriction Policies because you'd only experience this if you used that. Using Windows 7 Parental Controls for whitelisting will not cause this issue because it does not block DLLs and other non-exe "but still executable code" like SRPs do. Furthermore, I shall make the assumption in these instructions that you know how to access Microsoft Management Console / Group Policy Editor / Local Security Policy / Computer Configuration / Windows Settings / Security Settings / Software Restriction Policy…
1. Expand "Software Restriction Policy"
2. Select "Additional Rules"
3. Context menu
4. Select "New Path Rule"
5. Browse to C:ProgramDataWRData (If you want to narrow it down even further for security purposes, you may be able to get away with: C:ProgramDataWRDataPKG but I have not tried that!)
6. Make sure it is set to "Unrestricted"
7. Type a description if you so choose
8. Hit "OK" and close out of Microsoft Management Console
That should solve the problem. Joe told me in his last e-mail that he is going to possibly look into making another dialogue box that indicates the program is being prevented from logging into the account by Software Restriction Policies, or at least find a more indicative way to communicate the error rather than just providing an invalid credentials box, since it doesn't matter what the dickens you type in there...if SRP is blocking the DLLs needed for Backup & Sync, you are not logging on to anything!
Thank you everyone for the support, and special thanks to TripleHelix, MikeR, and of course Joe! This issue is officially resolved.
View originalThe issue is now official resolved and I have been using sync for over 12 hours now.
Mike, what you are referring to was the last time I posted thinking I found a solution, but then the issue came back (which ended up having nothing to do with importing configuration at all).
The resolution Cohbraz quoted was what I said at Wilders but I was very vague.
Essentially, I asked multiple times to verify WSA was compatible with Software Restriction Policies, which it is, and definitely ought to be, but there is a catch. WSA does something different than most programs. It needs to reference DLLs (executable code) from C:ProgramDataWRData. I actually don't think I've EVER experienced this before. Most programs that I install and whitelist into my computing environment are exempt from my restriction policies because they are installed in either Program Files or Program Files (x86) and that is where they reference their DLLs and execute their code from. WSA, however, has the main application there, but needs to call upon DLLs in a subfolder of the path I just described above called "PKG" for the Backup & Sync functionality specifically.
I was working with the very generous, extremely helpful, miracle man, Mr. Joe Jaroch, and on Saturday, we both discovered that when I was installing WSA fresh, it would work, but then as soon as I logged out and back in, regardless of account type, it would "break". Turns out, it wasn't breaking at all. It was working after install only because when you install something with typical UAC settings on Windows Vista/7, when a program runs immediately after install you are still elevated as an admin. WSA runs the core system processes as admin always of course, but the GUI runs as a standard user. Well, it would be most correct to say it runs with privileges of the current user, but because of UAC's Admin Approval Mode, that pretty much means it is running as a standard user except WSA does have built-in code to check if you are an administrator account to grant you access if you use Access Control settings. I'm not entirely sure how they do that, but with all that aside, the GUI runs essentially as a standard user except when you first install it since you are pre-elevated then until you log out and back in. So once Joe and I discovered that, Joe had to go somewhere, but I figured I would try and exempt the WRData from my SRP after I saw DLLs in there. Surely, it immediately worked. That was the solution.
So, if you are experiencing this problem, well, you will have had to know how to set Software Restriction Policies because you'd only experience this if you used that. Using Windows 7 Parental Controls for whitelisting will not cause this issue because it does not block DLLs and other non-exe "but still executable code" like SRPs do. Furthermore, I shall make the assumption in these instructions that you know how to access Microsoft Management Console / Group Policy Editor / Local Security Policy / Computer Configuration / Windows Settings / Security Settings / Software Restriction Policy…
1. Expand "Software Restriction Policy"
2. Select "Additional Rules"
3. Context menu
4. Select "New Path Rule"
5. Browse to C:ProgramDataWRData (If you want to narrow it down even further for security purposes, you may be able to get away with: C:ProgramDataWRDataPKG but I have not tried that!)
6. Make sure it is set to "Unrestricted"
7. Type a description if you so choose
8. Hit "OK" and close out of Microsoft Management Console
That should solve the problem. Joe told me in his last e-mail that he is going to possibly look into making another dialogue box that indicates the program is being prevented from logging into the account by Software Restriction Policies, or at least find a more indicative way to communicate the error rather than just providing an invalid credentials box, since it doesn't matter what the dickens you type in there...if SRP is blocking the DLLs needed for Backup & Sync, you are not logging on to anything!
Thank you everyone for the support, and special thanks to TripleHelix, MikeR, and of course Joe! This issue is officially resolved.
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