How to Enable Local Admin Access without the Risk
June 16, 2011
In today’s Windows environment, end users are accustomed to having local administrator privileges which allow them to download a variety of applications and potentially misconfigure their PCs. While standard wisdom may be to simply solve the problem by revoking local administrator rights on users’ systems, the reality is that this may not be an option at all organizations. And removing local admin rights doesn’t address applications such as Google Chrome or browser plug-ins for which admin access isn’t required.Fortunately, there’s hope for IT administrators seeking to gain control over the Windows environment while still offering local admin rights to the user base – through application whitelisting. With application whitelisting, IT can gain power over what types of applications their users install and limit their access to under-the-hood controls that determine how well config¬ured the machine remains.