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Using Windows 7 Ultimate, our users in standard acct cannot install / run any software from CD. How can I work around this without giving them admin access? I have admin access to make any changes.

Our users are not tech savy at all, and not having admin access has been helpful in keeping the PC stable and working order. If I give them the admin password, they'll just blindly type the password whenever it prompts for it!

I did some search, and don't think Windows 7 have the ability to "fine-tune" the UAC access.. Are there any 3rd party programs / add-on that can help? or any suggestions to solve this?

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1 Answer

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Only ship the users software which can be installed in "per-user" locations.

That is, rather than a program that wants to install itself in:

C:\Program Files\My Super Cool Application

only give them programs that know how to install themselves in the user's private folder:

C:\Users\fseto\AppData\Local\My Super Cool Application

Chrome is an example of one program that doesn't try to affect all users:

C:\Users\Ian\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome

Another example is any program that deploy's using ClickOnce.

Since you want your users to have Full Access to the system, just grant them Full Access to the system. Grant Everyone Full Control to:

  • C:\
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

e.g:

enter image description here

That way your users have full powers to install whatever software they want, and completely mangle a perfectly good computer.

You really should decide if users are allowed to write to protected locations or not.

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Please don't allow your users write access to the whole drive. It will only increase your workload. – surfasb Mar 3 '12 at 23:17
@surfasb i agree with you, but the questioner wants users to be able to install programs without being administrators. An alternative might be to rename the Administrators group, so technically users are no longer "Administrators", they're "Turboencabulators". – Ian Boyd Mar 4 '12 at 2:23
I don't doubt your reasoning for mentioning the option. I am just scared of the consequences. – surfasb Mar 4 '12 at 3:46
@IanBoyd In my case, the users are not even installing anything. They're just want to run a program from CD. Apparently, it also prompts for the admin password in this case. Very annoying. – fseto Mar 4 '12 at 12:17

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