Account Ability on Windows 7

Jan. 5, 2011 - PRLog -- Under UAC, all WIN7 users, including those with administrative rights, interact with their PCs as standard users most of the time. The Windows standard user account continues to have no administrative privileges, which prevents malware inadvertently downloaded by such an account from silently installing itself on the computer. Malware that somehow infiltrates a PC cannot access protected directories or registry entries.

File System and Registry Virtualization - Many legacy Windows applications were created so you could access parts of the file system and registry that are now locked in WIN7. However, Microsoft has devised an interesting solution within WIN7 to provide backward compatibility so that legacy software still works.

If legacy applications attempt to access protected portions of the file system and registry without the proper permissions, UAC virtualization services silently redirect read and write operations from protected portions of the file system and registry to unprotected user-specific locations. This process is transparent and occurs automatically.

The Effect of Virtualization on Account Ability (http://www.accountabilitysoftware.com)
Unless otherwise specified during installation, Account Ability installs to the 'Program Files' folder on your PC. In an effort to localize each reporting year's database, Account Ability creates and maintains all transactions within its installation folder. Although this does not pose a problem under traditional versions of Windows, WIN7 regards the 'Program Files' folder as a protected area, consequently locking it.

WIN7 silently writes all transaction to a Virtual Store for Account Ability,

C:UsersUSERNAMEAppdataLocalVirtualstoreProgram FilesAccount AbilityTax Form PreparationYYYY

where YYYY is the reporting year and USERNAME is the logged user.

NOTE: The 64-bit Virtual Store is

C:UsersUSERNAMEAppdataLocalVirtualstoreProgram Files (x86)Account AbilityTax Form PreparationYYYY

Although Account Ability won’t know the difference, there are limitations and you can get strange results. For example, if the application is run under another user account, transactions written to the first user’s virtual store are invisible to these other users. Another strange result is backups appear to restore properly but the database is not seen.

How to Avoid Virtualization
The easiest way to avoid virtualization is to avoid the 'Program Files' folder during installation. When prompted by the installation program for the destination folder, change the default folder to

C:Account Ability (do not include the reporting year)

If you browse to this folder after the installation has completed you will notice that a YYYY folder has been automatically created for the current reporting year. This YYYY folder will contain all of your YYYY reporting year transactions.

NOTE: The above discussion applies equally to Windows Vista users.

To install the free demonstration version of Account Ability, visit http://www.accountabilitysoftware.com or http://www.idmsinc.com.

IDMS Account Ability
1098, 1099, 3921, 3922, 5498, W2G, W2, W2C Compliance Made Easy!

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Account Ability prepares information returns (1098, 1099, 3921, 3922, 5498, W2G) and annual wage reports (W2, W2C) electronically, on laser, inkjet, and generic dot matrix printers. IRS Bulk TIN Matching is included at no extra charge.