Non-elevated woes... How can I get the most from my laptop?

[kunkel321]

The tech department at my new school district (employer) won't let staff be 'administrators' of their computers.  I'm trying to talk them into elevating me, but I don't think that they will.   I'm wondering how other people cope with this?  It's super annoying.  I can't run trouble-shooters, or access certain system areas.  Worse is that I can't install many of the various computer programs I've come to rely on over the years. 

Fortunately, I am able to use a USB stick.   I've made a  folder at C:/Portables and put lots of "portable" (i.e. no-install) apps there, moving them over using the USB stick.  Mouser's stuff seems to all be portable which is a life saver.  Also I found NirSoft's "AdvancedRun" which has helped me install a couple of things that wouldn't install otherwise.  I google searched how to make an app into a portable app.  There doesn't seem to be any good solutions out there.  Everything listed was corporate-level stuff. 

Do you guys (and gals) have any tips for me to survive in this new non-elevated world? 

[panzer]

1.Put a Linux distro on USB.
2. Or put this on it:
https://portableapps.com/download
https://portableapps.com/apps

[wraith808]

The tech department at my new school district (employer) won't let staff be 'administrators' of their computers.  I'm trying to talk them into elevating me, but I don't think that they will.   I'm wondering how other people cope with this?  It's super annoying.  I can't run trouble-shooters, or access certain system areas.  Worse is that I can't install many of the various computer programs I've come to rely on over the years. 

Fortunately, I am able to use a USB stick.   I've made a  folder at C:/Portables and put lots of "portable" (i.e. no-install) apps there, moving them over using the USB stick.  Mouser's stuff seems to all be portable which is a life saver.  Also I found NirSoft's "AdvancedRun" which has helped me install a couple of things that wouldn't install otherwise.  I google searched how to make an app into a portable app.  There doesn't seem to be any good solutions out there.  Everything listed was corporate-level stuff. 

Do you guys (and gals) have any tips for me to survive in this new non-elevated world? 

-kunkel321 (August 31, 2020, 09:30 AM)

Keep in mind when trying to get around it that doing so can get you in trouble with them as they own the machine and fund your job.

That said, I'm going ot have to deal with this when I get my new computer, and it's frustrating.  I just plan to use as many portable apps as I can.  I can also install as long as they don't need admin rights to do so.

[x16wda]

What's worse is when you not only have that to deal with, but also the malware protection that is installed marks everything you want to run as a PUP and deletes it. (Bad enough for anyone but utterly ridiculous for a senior tech support lead.)

[ferretau]

Your lucky, the education institution I was at didn't even allow binaries unless they had been vetted and approved by them.

[x16wda]

Your lucky, the education institution I was at didn't even allow binaries unless they had been vetted and approved by them.

-ferretau (August 31, 2020, 08:18 PM)

That's the most secure way to do it. Nobody wants ransomware to hit.

[wraith808]

What's worse is when you not only have that to deal with, but also the malware protection that is installed marks everything you want to run as a PUP and deletes it. (Bad enough for anyone but utterly ridiculous for a senior tech support lead.)

-x16wda (August 31, 2020, 06:22 PM)

No... you don't have it the worst.  As a programmer, when I create something and it gets marked as malware.

I had passwords for multiple servers/app pools/user accounts, and nothing to store them in that was approved.  So I made my own thing instead of storing them in a text file.  Had the source and everything.

They marked my encrypted password files as malware and deleted my passwords.

[x16wda]

They marked my encrypted password files as malware and deleted my passwords.

-wraith808 (August 31, 2020, 11:58 PM)

Oh- why... yes, that would make for a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day. 

[wraith808]

They marked my encrypted password files as malware and deleted my passwords.

-wraith808 (August 31, 2020, 11:58 PM)

Oh- why... yes, that would make for a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day. 

-x16wda (September 01, 2020, 06:40 PM)

Thankfully, I'd done something else against InfoSec policy and synced the encrypted files to dropbox, so I was able to recover it