Dropbox Free Version Working in multiple Windows User Accounts
Dropbox allows you to magically drag files into a Windows folder on your PC, the result being immediately the file is accessible online on the Dropbox server, no unnecessary keyboard/mouse/eye/brain work involved; simply edit and save the file in the folder in your PC, and the corresponding changes immediately appear in the online Dropbox-server version of the file.
Alleluia. Predictably Dropbox in a resounding victory for common-sense now boasts 200 million users, despite its simplicity and its having entered the internet world very recently in 2008, 10 years after the birth of the internet.
I installed Dropbox free-version on my Windows XP PC (Dropbox Desktop Application). Then later, I created a new second Windows User Account on the same PC (useful for decluttering, organization, PC security vs malware such as viruses). When using the second user account, I was able to access and change the contents of the Dropbox-public folder in the first user account, which was created when I installed Dropbox on my PC.
However I could not, while in the second user account, right-click on an item in the Dropbox-public folder to copy the public link of the item; and, I could not make a change in an html-file and immediately see the update take effect in the file online in its incarnation on the Dropbox server.
I wanted to be able to do both these things while in the second user account. If I wanted to grab the public link of a file in the dropbox-public folder, or if I wanted the change I had made in an html-file in the Dropbox-public folder to take effect in the online Dropbox-server version of the html-file, I had to endure time-consuming tiring procedures: bail out of the second user account, sign in to the first user account, wait for the first user account to wake up and load Dropbox.
The solution that has given me Dropbox-powers I previously possessed only in the first Windows user account, now also in the second Windows user account: sign in to the dropbox online account from the user account you want dropbox installed in (it should have administrator privileges); go to Get Started - Dropbox; click the "Install Dropbox on other computers you use" which leads you to the Download Dropbox for Windows page, which automatically downloads dropbox.exe into the Windows user account you are working from. Then during the installation process you are prompted to input your existing Dropbox username and password.
When I ran the downloaded Dropbox.exe, a dropbox folder containing a Dropbox-public folder was created in the my-documents folder in my second user account. The Dropbox folder in the second user account, contained the same content as the Dropbox folder in the first user account; right-clicking files in it produced the public links for the files, and editing and saving changes in those files automatically triggered changes in the online versions of the files on the Dropbox server.
The technique I describe was difficult to discover; for several reasons I floundered for hours researching it.
The link that leads to the solution reads, "Install Dropbox on other computers you use"; but it works also for other user accounts, although the text never explains that it works also for other user accounts.
The help section (Help search - Dropbox) at Dropbox has only the following (Can I have two Dropbox accounts on the same computer? - Dropbox ) to say re the matter:
The above says, "...At the moment you can only run one installation of Dropbox on a single computer and it can only be linked to a single account...use a different Dropbox account for each user login on your computer..." which sounds confusing and contradictory.
I was (whilst browsing the Wildernet searching for a solution) distracted to near-madness by babblers babbling about user accounts and Dropbox and tricks and softwares regarding such.
The google searches regarding the Windows user accounts and Dropbox devolved into a waste of time reading about hacks and freewares that were in fact either nutwares or out-dated; these purport to in impressively complex fashion allow some cool thing to happen with either multiple Dropbox accounts subverting the one free account rule, or, being able to get the client-side files communicating with the Dropbox server from different machines or different Windows user accounts; it was usually impossible to tell which type of invention was being trumpeted, my time was eaten up; time beginning to exceed the amount of time that would be saved via the technical progress desired was being wasted.
Fruitless Google searches that led to hours of exhausting wandering in the wildernett in search of the solution:
dropbox xp "second account"
dropbox xp "user account" - Google Search
dropbox xp "second user account" - Google Search
dropbox public folder windows xp "user account"
"windows user accounts:" dropbox - Google Search
"windows user accounts: dropbox - Google Search
Alleluia. Predictably Dropbox in a resounding victory for common-sense now boasts 200 million users, despite its simplicity and its having entered the internet world very recently in 2008, 10 years after the birth of the internet.
I installed Dropbox free-version on my Windows XP PC (Dropbox Desktop Application). Then later, I created a new second Windows User Account on the same PC (useful for decluttering, organization, PC security vs malware such as viruses). When using the second user account, I was able to access and change the contents of the Dropbox-public folder in the first user account, which was created when I installed Dropbox on my PC.
However I could not, while in the second user account, right-click on an item in the Dropbox-public folder to copy the public link of the item; and, I could not make a change in an html-file and immediately see the update take effect in the file online in its incarnation on the Dropbox server.
I wanted to be able to do both these things while in the second user account. If I wanted to grab the public link of a file in the dropbox-public folder, or if I wanted the change I had made in an html-file in the Dropbox-public folder to take effect in the online Dropbox-server version of the html-file, I had to endure time-consuming tiring procedures: bail out of the second user account, sign in to the first user account, wait for the first user account to wake up and load Dropbox.
The solution that has given me Dropbox-powers I previously possessed only in the first Windows user account, now also in the second Windows user account: sign in to the dropbox online account from the user account you want dropbox installed in (it should have administrator privileges); go to Get Started - Dropbox; click the "Install Dropbox on other computers you use" which leads you to the Download Dropbox for Windows page, which automatically downloads dropbox.exe into the Windows user account you are working from. Then during the installation process you are prompted to input your existing Dropbox username and password.
When I ran the downloaded Dropbox.exe, a dropbox folder containing a Dropbox-public folder was created in the my-documents folder in my second user account. The Dropbox folder in the second user account, contained the same content as the Dropbox folder in the first user account; right-clicking files in it produced the public links for the files, and editing and saving changes in those files automatically triggered changes in the online versions of the files on the Dropbox server.
The technique I describe was difficult to discover; for several reasons I floundered for hours researching it.
The link that leads to the solution reads, "Install Dropbox on other computers you use"; but it works also for other user accounts, although the text never explains that it works also for other user accounts.
The help section (Help search - Dropbox) at Dropbox has only the following (Can I have two Dropbox accounts on the same computer? - Dropbox ) to say re the matter:
"...At the moment you can only run one installation of Dropbox on a single computer and it can only be linked to a single account. Accessing another account from a computer...is as easy as logging in as another user through the Dropbox website...you can link accounts together by creating shared folders. Shared folders are designed to allow you to sync files between multiple accounts...use a different Dropbox account for each user login on your computer...you will have to switch between each user account to take advantage of Dropbox's syncing features. This method is best for groups or families that have individual Dropbox accounts and use unique user logins on the same computer".
The above says, "...At the moment you can only run one installation of Dropbox on a single computer and it can only be linked to a single account...use a different Dropbox account for each user login on your computer..." which sounds confusing and contradictory.
I was (whilst browsing the Wildernet searching for a solution) distracted to near-madness by babblers babbling about user accounts and Dropbox and tricks and softwares regarding such.
The google searches regarding the Windows user accounts and Dropbox devolved into a waste of time reading about hacks and freewares that were in fact either nutwares or out-dated; these purport to in impressively complex fashion allow some cool thing to happen with either multiple Dropbox accounts subverting the one free account rule, or, being able to get the client-side files communicating with the Dropbox server from different machines or different Windows user accounts; it was usually impossible to tell which type of invention was being trumpeted, my time was eaten up; time beginning to exceed the amount of time that would be saved via the technical progress desired was being wasted.
Fruitless Google searches that led to hours of exhausting wandering in the wildernett in search of the solution:
dropbox xp "second account"
dropbox xp "user account" - Google Search
dropbox xp "second user account" - Google Search
dropbox public folder windows xp "user account"
"windows user accounts:" dropbox - Google Search
"windows user accounts: dropbox - Google Search
posted by David Virgil at 3:34 AM
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