I know what this sounds like. Before you ban or block or post some smartass remark, hear me out. I'm trying to get around an adminstrator password on my work computer so I can install a couple of useful apps. Before I joined the company, most of the computers were fairly open. About a year ago, they hired an empolyee who took advantage of this an installed personal liscense software on her work computer for work-related use. Obviously this is illegal and the employee was warned. The employee persisted and eventually the company locked the computers down so that you could not install without administrator privileges.
This applied to old and new employees. I started about 2 months ago and was given a locked computer. Shortly thereafter the employee who caused the lock down policy left for another position.
During this time I began experiencing issues with my computer and I needed an adminstrator to be around to help trouble shoot. This person explained why the computers were locked down when I expressed that it would waste less of his time if the computer wasn't locked. He then said, 'Of course you know that there is a workaround right? You just need a windows boot disk.
Running a program as an administrator is a common task in Windows. To use the 'run as' option in any version of Windows without using the right-click option. It can be frustrating to have to log out and log back in as administrator to install a program or modify a system configuration, and then log out again and log back in as a regular.
Then you don't need the password.' This was the wink, wink, nudge, nudge way of saying as long as you don't do something stupid it's unofficially ok. My question is, is this true, can I use a boot disk and not have to get an admin password to install a program? I'm not looking to install pirated software or software that I own a personal liscense for, I'm looking to install useful tools such as CPU-Z or something similar and to make enhancements such as increasing the page file size. If it's true, how do I go about it?
Are there other ways to achieve the same ends? I know this is a boarderline issue but at the same time, the IT Admin guy suggested it. Thanks for your help! How is cpu-z useful? Just ask them to increase the page file size, any tech support worth their will just do it. If you are on anything pre win7 (possibly vista), then you can find/reset passwords, but THIS IS A WORKS MACHINE, in your employement contract will be rules regarding the misuse of company machines.
It won't matter if you've been winked at, (he could have been coming on to you), you'll be warned or sacked, especially as there have been previous transgressions by others in your company. Here comes my 'smartass remark' This is work.
You know, that horrible thing you do that gets you money? Don't F with their computers. I interned in my local cities IT dept for 6 months. Unless you truly want to be on their Sh!7 list, just stop whatever ideas you have. The last thing in this economy that you want to have happen is you end up killing your computer and they end up terminating the new guy. (which is you right now.) I was basically told by my IT guy (who is also the controller) that there was a way to do this and I was allowed to do it so long as I didn't install something illegal or maliciously attempt to take down the server. I do not have those intentions.
I'm not trying to screw up their computers. I'm trying to use the tools available to me, that I've learned about through Tom's, to optimize the machine I spends 8-12 hours a day using without having to bother one or several people who have much more important things to do than walk down to my office and enter a password each time I want to make a change. If you're not going to provide constructive help, don't trouble yourself by trying to scare me into submission. I have no moral qualms with my question and I am not worried about losing my job. I am asking for help from a community that is almost always a credible and reliable source of valuable information.
If you do not wish to participate in my endevor, then by all means ignore this thread. But do not lecture me like some ignorant, spoiled child from your pedistal of an IT intern. How is cpu-z useful? Just ask them to increase the page file size, any tech support worth their will just do it. If you are on anything pre win7 (possibly vista), then you can find/reset passwords, but THIS IS A WORKS MACHINE, in your employement contract will be rules regarding the misuse of company machines.
It won't matter if you've been winked at, (he could have been coming on to you), you'll be warned or sacked, especially as there have been previous transgressions by others in your company. I find it useful as a monitoring tool. If something all of a sudden changes I have two things: one is a baseline of what the system should be like and the other is a snapshot of where the system is at that time. The page file is at the bottom of the list of priorities for our IT department. We have one person on site that handles the easy day to day issues that come up as necessary who is also the controler for the company.
So this persons time is better spent on other things. There is a small IT contractor who sends a person twice a week to handle other issues that come up and manage the servers. All of these people have many other things to do than increase the page file on one computer. It may get taken care of eventually but not any time soon. This is a win 7 pro machine.
I don't think he was coming onto me, but then again he is single and in his late 30's/early 40's, so I guess it's possible. Jk If anything comes of this it would likely be a warning. If that happens I will cease and desist at once. I'd have to agree with others Don't do it - IF you really feel the need to have those programs have the IT guy install them for you - that way if things hit the fan you have him to blame for doing it - it's not worth the risk of losing your job for adding a few programs onto the work machine and figure the reason the IT guy told you there were ways around it instead of just adding them for you was probably that he knows you'll get fired for doing it and either doesn't want to chance getting caught doing it for you or wants to see you get yourself in trouble. Hi I am an employer. If you got around my admin password.you get sacked.end of.
Saying that It guy 'hinted' you can get around it will get him sacked as well. All the best Brett It would have been funnier if you were BlueFireAngel's employer. I'm one of those lucky few who has admin rights on my work PC. And even with them I would.never. install something on it that I can't wholley justify as being necessary for the work I need to do. Regardless of your self-perceived (or even actual) level of computer expertise, do not monkey with your work PC.
After all, it really isn't 'your' PC at all.
I recently discovered a new way to remotely install software. When users require a program to be installed on their computers, they download the software to their desktops. I then use Sysinternals' PsExec utility to remotely start the execution of the program, but I start the program interactively so that the user who is logged on to the target computer can complete the installation. This approach is advantageous because you don't need to give Administrator privileges to users who need to install software on their computers. When you run PsExec without a username and password, the remote process runs under the same account from which you execute PsExec (in this case, the Administrator account). Because the remote process is impersonating that account, the user won't have access to network resources on the remote system.
(When you specify a username and password, the remote process executes in the specified account and will have access to any network resources that the account has access to.) Using PsExec is handier than using the built-in RunAs command because you don't need to be physically sitting at a user's computer. To use PsExec to remotely install software, you need to start the installer.exe program with the following command: Psexec -i targetcomputer targetcomputer c$ documents and settings username desktop installer.exe The -i option starts installer.exe interactively for the user currently logged on to the machine specified by targetcomputer.