TigerPixel.DE
has been deployed to the
BATTLEFIELD 2142
zone.
Unfortunately the deployment has delayed by more than six weeks.
After the decision to use
Windows XP Professional
for my
advanced gaming computer
I stumbled across the issue that
BATTLEFIELD 2
needs administrative privileges to be run.
But it rubs me up the wrong way to do common tasks as an user with administrative privileges.
I've spent much effort to find a solution inspired by the
Run As
command incorporated into
Windows XP Professional.
The issue is aggregated by the circumstance that other programs interacting with
BATTLEFIELD 2
such as
Fraps
or
Logitech G-series Keyboard Profiler
need not only administrative privileges too but must also run in the same process space.
Now I'm in the happy position to present a well elaborated solution based on the freeware utilities
CPAU
and
Makro:
-
CPAU
is a really sophisticated and matured command line tool
developed by
Joe Richards.
In comparison to the
Run As
command
it is capable of encrypting the user id, password and program with parameters in an extra file for later reuse.
-
Makro
is developed by
Walter Hintenaus.
If an instance of the
Makro
utility already runs,
another launch of the
Makro
utility done by the same user forces the first running instance to seize the control of the second invocation.
This feature is the
key
to spawn processes in the same process space.
Moreover the
Makro
process can be hidden from the task bar and the system tray.
Unfortunately its documentation is only available in German.
I try to explain my approach in a few words:
CPAU
launches
Makro
with administrative privileges in the background when a common user logs in.
A link file
(
.lnk)
labeled with the name of the game resp. utility,
that shall run with administrative privileges in a certain process space,
invokes
CPAU
again.
It tries to launch another
Makro
process but now with a shortcut as parameter, e.g. Shift+Alt+Ctrl+L+P.
The shortcut is assigned to a so-called local macro:
The macro will be only performed
if a window with a certain title has been opened and has the focus.
The only task of the macro is to invoke a game resp. utility on its own right!
That is, such a local macro is defined for every game and every utility
but it is always represented by the same short cut,
in this case Shift+Alt+Ctrl+L+P,
and the name of the game resp. utility.
The name must be the same as the title of the link file mentioned above.
And here another key feature comes in play.
Double-clicking the link file attached to
CPAU
opens a windows that is recognized by the
Makro
process in case an appropriate macro has been defined.
Well! I hope it is roughly clear what happens.
Later on I'm going to illustrate in detail (that is with the help of screenshots) my approach on this Web site.
For now the reader may individually contact
me
for other details or for suggesting a better solution.
By the way, last week when I was nearly finishing my investigations of the issue
I hit upon the open source utility
AutoHotkey.
Perhaps it is a candidate to replace the
Makro
utility.
It is a matured software and the development goes on.
The documentation is available in several languages.
Aside from me it seems to be well known by other gamers.
I've found in the provided
forum
many threads discussing shortcuts in connection with
BATTLEFIELD 2
and
BATTLEFIELD 2142.
