Hi-
I'm working with my Makerspace to try to prevent changes to the Simplify3D Printer Profiles that are installed on the machines at the Makerspace. It has been VERY common for people to come in and "play" with the settings on a particular computer - then a "newbie" comes in to try to print for the first time and has HUGE problems.
I've scoured the internet looking for information on where these settings are stored - I saw that it might be the registry. I've run a search through the registry and then made the keys "read only" for the normal user profile on the machines. No luck. People can still make changes that survive closing and restarting the program.
Also I've looked in the filesystem for these settings - for the life of me, I can't locate them in the Program Files (or x86 version) section - or even under the user's local profile (for instance, the hidden "Application Settings" area).
If I could just find out where these are kept, I can make them "Read Only" for the normal always-logged in profile that everyone uses. Then if we *do* need to make changes, an Admin could log in and still have "Write" permissions to these registry keys/files.
All help would be greatly appreciated - you would be helping out the next "newbie" who stumbles in here and wants 3D printing to "just work" (hah!).
(BTW, our Makerspace is "Make717" in Lancaster PA - http://make717.org)
-
MakerInCharge
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2016 8:04 pm
Re: How to Lock Down Profiles
Hey,
S3D saves its settings in the registry on a Windows machine.
The path is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Simplify3D\S3D-Software\
The important keys for the settings seem "FFF" and "FFFWindow".
"FFF" seems to store the current used profile or the profile that is selected if you create a new process.
"FFFWindow" has all the profiles in one value "profileDatabaseContents"...
I revoked the right to write on the "FFFWindow" and "FFF" keys and it somehow works.
You can change a profile, you can update it, when you switch profiles and switch back it has still the update settings.
But if you create a new process it has the default values or if you switch profile, exit the process editor, open it again and switch to the desired profile then it is also back to its defaults...
S3D saves its settings in the registry on a Windows machine.
The path is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Simplify3D\S3D-Software\
The important keys for the settings seem "FFF" and "FFFWindow".
"FFF" seems to store the current used profile or the profile that is selected if you create a new process.
"FFFWindow" has all the profiles in one value "profileDatabaseContents"...
I revoked the right to write on the "FFFWindow" and "FFF" keys and it somehow works.
You can change a profile, you can update it, when you switch profiles and switch back it has still the update settings.
But if you create a new process it has the default values or if you switch profile, exit the process editor, open it again and switch to the desired profile then it is also back to its defaults...
-
MakerInCharge
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2016 8:04 pm
Re: How to Lock Down Profiles
Just so others are aware, you have to revoke access to any users you don't want to be able to make changes AS WELL AS the "system" user. I also searched the registry for "FFFWindow" and "FFF". There were several other locations where these existed - they appeared to be under a SID for the active user. I had to revoke access to these as well. So I would suggest to anyone in a similar situation to just search the registry for "FFF" and "FFFWindow" and revoke security permissions to these keys. You have to break inheritance on the key first - then go and selectively allow only "read" access for the user you're trying to restrict as well as the "system" user.
If we need to update the profile(s) in any way, what I do then is to open the registry editor as the admin user (search for "regedit" and then shift-right-click and "run as different user" then input credentials for the local administrator) and then allow access to the currently logged in user to make changes (search the registry again for "FFF" and "FFFWindow" and allow the user "full control" as well as the system user "full control" to the keys), then update the profiles (have to re-launch S3D after making the registry changes) and finally, close S3D and then change the keys back to "read only" for the current user and the "system" user.
Hope this helps someone else.. It would be VERY nice if S3D built in some way to lock down profiles - or even just moved the profiles out of the registry into a more convenient location where we could use the usual NTFS permissions to lock things down. I *DON'T* like playing around in the registry.
and to @Alex9779 - thank you so much for taking the time to look into this for us! I probably would have figured it out, but it helps a lot if someone else has already taken the time. Now our users won't have to worry about a "newbie" coming in and changing the filament diameter to 3.0 when it should be 1.75 so something equally stupid. Saves everyone from becoming irate
If we need to update the profile(s) in any way, what I do then is to open the registry editor as the admin user (search for "regedit" and then shift-right-click and "run as different user" then input credentials for the local administrator) and then allow access to the currently logged in user to make changes (search the registry again for "FFF" and "FFFWindow" and allow the user "full control" as well as the system user "full control" to the keys), then update the profiles (have to re-launch S3D after making the registry changes) and finally, close S3D and then change the keys back to "read only" for the current user and the "system" user.
Hope this helps someone else.. It would be VERY nice if S3D built in some way to lock down profiles - or even just moved the profiles out of the registry into a more convenient location where we could use the usual NTFS permissions to lock things down. I *DON'T* like playing around in the registry.
and to @Alex9779 - thank you so much for taking the time to look into this for us! I probably would have figured it out, but it helps a lot if someone else has already taken the time. Now our users won't have to worry about a "newbie" coming in and changing the filament diameter to 3.0 when it should be 1.75 so something equally stupid. Saves everyone from becoming irate
