ASPI for non-privileged users in Windows XP

I have recently consolidated all of my home computers and servers into one notebook in preparation for travel. With only one computer, Kirsten and I now share. Being the tyrant that I am, I made her a “Limited User”. It turns out that this is not without a price.

If you are not an Administrator of a Windows XP machine, you cannot use ASPI. This might not mean much to most of my readers, let me translate: you cannot rip CD’s. It turns out that this is a sensible security precaution, as Bad People might use ASPI to do Bad Things. But I want Kip to be able to rip CD’s when I am not around, so I sought out the answer.

The answer is: ForceASPI 1.8. The official site seems to be down, perhaps brought down by Adaptec, whose drivers they appropriate. The google cache will give you the instructions, and a search for forceaspi18.zip will give you the file.

Allow me to mirror the instructions:

  • Run dumpASPI to backup your current ASPI layer
  • Run instASPI to install the new ASPI layer
  • Reboot your PC
  • Run aspichk to see if everything worked OK

Now AudioGrabber is happy, and it is now free (although I did pay for it, back in the day).

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3 comments

  1. Does WiMP require ASPI for ripping? Burning I could almost understand (almost), but ripping seems kinda extreme?

  2. I don’t know about WMP. Who uses that? It sucks for ripping. Puts lots of junk in the folders and it never knows the tracklist. I have used Audiograbber for years and I am pleased with it.

  3. isn’t there any way to allow limited users in xp to have aspi by changing some settings in the os settings.??

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