Folding Forum

Hi all,

I'm a long time FAH user, having used the software on and off across various platforms since it came bundled with the Playstation 3.

I have recently become so frustrated with the software that I won't be using it any longer. In particular, I remain perplexed at the lack of support for standard user (non-admin) accounts on Windows. From a fresh installation of the software using express install on a standard user account, I end up with zero functionality.

What I mean by that is:

1. Upon Windows startup, FAH won't even start. It requires a whole lot of stuffing around just to have the program start automatically upon user sign in.
2. Starting the FAH client manually or via scheduling results in an unsightly console window as a GUI with a persistent icon in the taskbar, with the console constantly timing out attempting to contact the Stanford servers (yes, I configured the firewall correctly). If you close the console window, the entire program stops.

I'm absolutely perplexed as to why there appears to be no obvious troubleshooting under the support FAQs for this, let alone a build of the program which addresses these issues. If it's not technically possible to rectify this, it should be made abundantly clear throughout installation or somewhere obvious near the download section - to ensure standard users know what they're up for. I can't imagine the numbers of people turned away because of this, which is a real shame as I'm a true believer in the cause.

Thought you ought to know in case it's useful.

1)*** You must run FAH from whatever Windows user did the installation. ***

From my perspective that means FAH must be installed WHILE LOGGED ON AS A NON-ADMINISTRATIVE USER that's going to be logged on the computer most of the time. During the install, Windows will detect that that person is NOT have Admin permission, will pause the installation, and ask for elevated permissions. This can easily be done because it will ask for the name and password of an Admin.

Then, starting automatically will work.


2) Starting manually PROVIDED YOU USE THE SHORTCUT PROVIDED will also then work but starting by double-clicking the executable is not supported. including using scheduling to start FAHClient. (I've never tried scheduling the shortcut to start -- that might work.)

In another recent thread on this same topic, I asked why FAHClient couldn't run continuously, using FAHControl or scripts to suspend folding whenever you'd like to do that. (FAHClient does virtually no processing when all assigned WUs are either paused or finished.)