sql server msde: I have two applications that need to run on a user login (power user rights)
.. One application is a commercial app that installed it's named instance
(that runs fine with user rights); another is a "home-brewed" app (not by me)
that (I believe) uses the default instance. This default instance only shows
up in SQL Server Service Manager when logged in with admin rights - thus, at
this point, I can only get the app to run by granting the user admin rights,
something I don't want to do.

So, what sort of right/ registry mod/ settings mod is necessary to get this
instance running and recognized without granting admin rights?

Thanks - Gary
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hi Gary,
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please verify in the control panel, Admin Tools, services, how many MSDE
installed instances you have..
the default instance will be shown as MSSQLSERVER, where named instances are
listed as MSSQL$InstanceName..

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no "admin" permissions are required to connect to SQL Server/MSDE... only
"login" permissions are required :D
SQL Server can manage 2 kinds of logins: standard SQL Server logins and
"Windows logins"...
the 1st kind of logins requires user's credentials to be provided in the
form of "user id =user_name;pwd=user_password;",
where the second one requires nothing as the "sid" of the current connected
Windows account is passed to SQL Server ... this second one is known as
"trusted connection" and can manage Windows groups as well (Power Users,
Users, ...) as permission can be granted/denied at group granularity level
as well..
http://www.connectionstrings.com/?carrier=sqlserver
when SQL Server is requested a connection, it checks the provided
credentials are valid, thus verifying an actual SQL Server login exists and
if he/she has been granted access to the instance, or verifying membership
to granted Windows groups that have been granted login permissions...
so you can verify an actual login exists for the required user.. you can
perform that via straight Transact-SQL code
(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q325003) or using
graphical tools... MSDE does not provide them, but perhaps you can have a
look at a free prj of mine, DbaMgr2k, available at
http://www.asql.biz/en/DbaMgr.aspx ...

by default, for security reasons, MSDE installs allowing trusted connections
only, thus standard SQL Server logins are not granted access rights, but you
can modify this behaviour, both at install time as later, as described in
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;285097 ..
--
Andrea Montanari (Microsoft MVP - SQL Server)
http://www.asql.biz http://italy.mvps.org
DbaMgr2k ver 0.21.0 - DbaMgr ver 0.65.0 and further SQL Tools
--------- remove DMO to reply