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Re: [GOLDSTAR] Re: [PATCH] setup: allow running as non-admin
- From: Christopher Faylor <cgf-use-the-mailinglist-please at cygwin dot com>
- To: cygwin-apps at cygwin dot com
- Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 12:56:20 -0500
- Subject: Re: [GOLDSTAR] Re: [PATCH] setup: allow running as non-admin
- Authentication-results: sourceware.org; auth=none
- References: <527AE157 dot 4080107 at shaddybaddah dot name> <20131107131521 dot GA5722 at calimero dot vinschen dot de> <20131107152342 dot GA3974 at ednor dot casa dot cgf dot cx> <527D7C12 dot 6090204 at shaddybaddah dot name> <20131109004042 dot GA5742 at ednor dot casa dot cgf dot cx> <20131109102001 dot GI16306 at calimero dot vinschen dot de> <6CF2FC1279D0844C9357664DC5A08BA21B2F85 at MLBXV06 dot nih dot gov> <20131109173050 dot GN16306 at calimero dot vinschen dot de> <20131110072828 dot GB3090 at ednor dot casa dot cgf dot cx> <20131110122802 dot GO16306 at calimero dot vinschen dot de>
- Reply-to: cygwin-apps at cygwin dot com
On Sun, Nov 10, 2013 at 01:28:02PM +0100, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
>On Nov 10 02:28, Christopher Faylor wrote:
>> On Sat, Nov 09, 2013 at 06:30:50PM +0100, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
>> >What changed is the way how normal users can install for "just them".
>> >No name tweak but an option instead. Given what you wrote, an
>> >installation as normal user right from the net was not possible before,
>> >so just the method to do it changed slightly. By documenting it
>> >somewhere, we should be all set, shouldn't we?
>>
>> So, in other words, an end user will no longer have to rename setup*.exe
>> to foo.exe to bypass enforced elevation but will, instead, just have to
>> use a command-line option. Sounds good to me. We can add words for
>> that to the install.html web page and to the FAQ.
>
>Exactly what I had in mind. I have some changes to setup-net.xml in the
>loop. I'll add some more to the FAQ and upload that next week.
>
>Nevertheless, on second thought we *could* do more, if we want to,
>now that we have our permissions completely under our own control.
>
>Provided somebody has fun working on that stuff, what we could do,
>for instance:
>
>- Per the Microsoft UAC guidelines(*) the elevation prompt should not
> be shown at all if UAC is switched off. The idea is to show a dialog
> instead, telling the user "this application requires admin privs,
> yada yada", but in fact our setup would run as normal user just fine
> if we let it. See the next point.
>
>- Right now setup simply exits if the elevation didn't work or was
> canceled. What about a dialog instead, which asks the user something
> along the lines of "Elevation canceled" or "UAC turned off", and then
> "Setup can run without admin privs with some restrictions, are you
> aware of them and do you want to do that? [Yes/No]"
>
>- This could be even more elegant if setup checks if the installer path
> in the registry is in HKLM. If so, it could refuse to do its stuff
> without admin rights, because it knows that the original installation
> has been performed with admin rights. Chances are high then, that a
> normal user won't have enough permissions to update the installation.
>
>- Something we could have done all along (and which has been mentioned
> on the Cygwin ML): We could drop the "All users"/"Just me" choice if
> the user has no admin rights. After all, the "All user" stuff can't
> be written anyway without admin rights.
All good SHTDI ideas.
cgf