While staying with some friends in the UK recently, I was asked to help straighten out their digitized music collection, and help with using a newly purchased Philips HDD120 MP3 player.
I found that their PC reproduced many problems I had experienced with WMP 9/10 regarding overwriting of local metadata even with corresponding WMP options turned off. Microsoft is still in denial over this issue. Apparently Jim Allchin has read items in this blog but we're still a world away from his WMP team addressing any of the issues which affect consumer data. When I say “affect”, it's a euphemism for “destroy”.
Meanwhile, at Philips software department, a similar low standard and atmosphere of denial persists. I installed their DMM (Digital Music/Media Manager) software which accompanies their MP3 player. I also made a point of getting a more up to date version of that software from their website. I found that the software has a maddening problem (in addition to its maddening synch slowness) - it requires that the user be a Windows Administrator ie not use a Limited profile on Windows XP. Whereas most software can be installed once by an Administator account and thence be available to all accounts on that machine, the DMM software has to be installed individually for each account. There's a twist though, if you install for a second account, then the software goes into uninstall mode, therefore ensuring it only works for a single user on the machine. Heaven forbid that a family have one PC and multiple MP3 players!
Anyway, once you have installed the software, you cannot expect to revert to a Limited profile, because
a) the software will not load past the splash screen. It gives an error "The application can not start (OK)" and then
closes.
b) the device is not recognized as connected (although Windows Explorer sees the removable hard drive)
unless the profile stays as an Administrator. It seems that Philips does not recognize the security risks inherent in running every day as an Administrator, particularly if always connected to the internet via broadband.
When I put this issue to Philips support initially their response (2-Sep-2005) was:
Thank you for your recent e-mail.
With regards to your query we can advise that the software may have
been installed, while the computer was logged in on the Admin account,
therefore the Limited account will not recognise the software as being
fully installed.
We would advise that you verify this, and if you find that the
software has been installed on the Limited Account only, but you are
still receiving this message, that you contact us, in order to resolve
the matter.
We trust that the information provided will be of assistance.
Should you require any further information please contact our Customer
Care Centre (details below) quoting customer reference number
50-59047542.
When I replied, with additional details (including item #2 above), and confirming the behaviour on 2 other PCs, the response (5-Sep-2005) was:
With regards to your query we can advise that this is normal, the DMM
software will only recognise the unit, if the computer is logged in on
the same 'Profile' as where the software has been installed.
... completely ignoring any of the issues outlined.
I subsequently googled on “Philips DMM Administrator” to see if there were solutions listed by other users. The most edifying was the first hit from 10-11-2004, which may predate the release of the device in question, and certainly goes back some versions of the DMM software:
Recently I spoke to an ex collegue, who left our company for Philips research in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. He had been running around the consumer product labs for 3 months, and he told me this story about the development and marketing of the HDD100:
"They had just made the first version of the player, and now they (the developers) had to ram together some software to make it at least work, so they would be able to show something to the marketing guys. What they came up with was more a 'proof of concept', not intended for the consumer at all. Some big hotshot saw that it more or less worked and said: "That's good enough, put it on the market ". The developers protested, but to no avail. The software, which was in an alpha stage at best, became the official software as we now no it."
So don't blame the developers, but blame the big bosses at Philips that gave us this software for a device that cost me 500 euro (I was an early adopter):
-You have to have administrator rights to be able to run the software. [etc]
Update: Philips (Sep-6-2005) now parrot back my problem report:
With regards to your query we can advise that in order for the
application to run properly you would need to execute DMM under a
profile with Administrator Rights. If you are unsure, we suggest that
you consult with your Network Administrator.
We trust that the information provided will be of assistance.
Should you require any further information please contact our Customer
Care Centre (details below) quoting customer reference number
50-59047542.
Although their software has been updated this year, it appears Philips have no intention of addressing this usability/security issue. And how many home users have a Network Administrator to consult? ... and wouldn't such an Administrator want all the accounts they support set to Limited??
Update Sep-7-2005. Philips write:
With regards to your query we can advise that there are no security
issues and that it is not dangerous running your operating system
using an Administrator profile. As you are fully aware the software
does require an Administrator level profile to install the software.
It is the same to run the software as you need be logged in to a
profile with Administrator rights for it to be able to execute the
application. [My italics]
Compare, for instance Michael Howard's (Microsoft Security Engineering) basic mantra:
I've said this many times, but I'll say it again, "Running with an administrative account is dangerous to the health of your computer and your data." So, whenever someone says they must operate their computers as administrators, I always try to persuade them it's not the correct thing to do from a security perspective. That said, every once in a while I meet someone who has a valid reason. For example, I use one of the computers in my office to install the latest daily build of Windows, and I need to be an administrator to install the OS. However, and this is a big point, I do not read e-mail, browse the Web, or access the Internet in any form when running as an administrator on that machine. And I do not do so because the Web is the source of most of the nasty attacks today.
Philips's subsequent messages have been:
With regards to your query we can advise that you should contact our
customer service helpdesk on the following number should you wish to
discuss this case further.
I have called them on earlier occasions, and found their staff scrambling to find any documentation for their products beyond the bare-bones help included with DMM. I've suggested that any solution can be outlined easily in an email, rather than a lengthy, expensive (and probably unproductive) phone-call.
I searched the web for more background on this software and keep encountering end-users who have returned the product because they cannot get around the errors I've outlined. Philips are out of touch with their customers.
September 14 - Philips offer a magic solution i.e. ignore all earlier parts of the conversation and start repeating earlier incorrect advice. Reminds me of a similar recent thread with iRiver tech support.
With regards to your query we can advise that you simply need to
install the software on the specific profile that you would like to
use the Programme on.