Admin rights

[radddogg]

Is there anyway I can bypass the admin restrictions on my work laptop, a Lenovo X201?

[DRover620]

What OS?

[radddogg]

What OS?

XP SP3

[DRover620]

There is a way to delete admin pass, but to do that you should be able to boot laptop from CD or USB.
After you delete admin pass you log in to admin account and do what ever you wanted to do
Don't know if this is a good option for you?

[Null_Byte]

Yes there is, should you do it? Probably not.

I would very carefully think about it before embarking as it is a disciplinary offence in most workplaces. Certainly if I found a user bypassing any form of security I'd pull their account and be straight on to their manager/hr.

If you genuinely need admin rights to do your job, then speak to your IT department, they probably still won't give you direct admin, but if they are half decent they should be able to sort you out. If it isn't work related and you value your job, buy your own laptop

[radddogg]

This is the thing it is work related. My new role involves kaizen projects and I often find myself wanting to install a piece of freeware for testing purposes or I may want to enable/disable a service and am stuck without admin rights. I'm sure I could probably get admin rights eventually but I directly report into the Head of Finance & Accounting (six figure salary SMT) so I don't want to rock the boat.

I was hoping there was something I could do to sneak in the back door undetected, maybe running a batch file or something during boot, I dunno whatever. Although I think there may be some kind of group policy that would prevent this.

[Pinkie15]

Have you actually asked for admin rights ?? If you need to do this as part of your job, then it's legit. If you can't do your job without these progs for testing and they won't give you rights to download them, well that's the basis for a constructive dismissal claim when you haven't been able to complete the task/achieve your development goals.

At our place we can request temporary admin rights so we can install drivers for home broadband setup, home printer etc... (not quite the same) and don't have any problems.

[Null_Byte]

You should have no reason to enable or disable a service even if you are evaluating software tools.

Installing freeware could still be a problem. A lot of freeware is only free for personal use, this doesn't include corporate multinationals Your IT department is ultimately responsible for any breaches in licensing the company makes, hence they will not be keen in allowing just anybody to install what they want.

In addition a lot of downloaded software can include various nasties, and even if it doesn't, it will clog up your laptop with a load of rubbish that they will have to remove at some stage anyway.

These are generally the reasons why an IT department won't give out admin rights, rather than any Orwellian world domination principle.

Also, unless your IT department is very lax, chances are they will do at least some auditing, which may include checking what privileges are on each system (this will be done automatically when you are connected to the network), so sneaking anywhere is generally not a good option.



However if your job is actually to test out software, then you should be working closely with them anyway. They may have a software appraisal form you can fill in which will actually help them do their job. If you can demonstrate you are a trustworthy and competent user they may consider elevating your privileges, certainly to a level where it allows you to do what you need to.

Alternatively they may give you a virtual machine which you can boot up on your laptop to test the software in. This is a break and build environment which can be easily wiped clean which allows you to test each piece of software in isolation, and in perfect safety without touching the host system.

All of these suggestions will win you brownie points with your IT department and your manager, which is going to look a whole lot better than when the IT manager blows his lid and shouts at SMT.

[radddogg]

You should have no reason to enable or disable a service even if you are evaluating software tools.

For me continuous improvement is all about saving clicks. Have you seen Windows Desktop Search? Its more bloated than AOL! So whenever I search the network (because WDS can't index the network) I have to scroll to the bottom and click use the search companion. Pointless timewasting.

Another example is I extend my desktop onto a second monitor when in the office so I have to right click desktop and enable through the display properties before manually running multimon taskbar, when I could set up a script or AHK to do this automatically for me.

Installing freeware could still be a problem. A lot of freeware is only free for personal use, this doesn't include corporate multinationals Your IT department is ultimately responsible for any breaches in licensing the company makes, hence they will not be keen in allowing just anybody to install what they want.

I worded that wrong, I should have said trial versions. We are looking at new CRM tools but rather than install a trial I can only evaluate via the sales blurb videos.

In addition a lot of downloaded software can include various nasties, and even if it doesn't, it will clog up your laptop with a load of rubbish that they will have to remove at some stage anyway.

For a brand new laptop the IT department have already made a good job of clogging it up with a load of rubbish, jeez it takes two or three minutes to boot up into a usable state

However if your job is actually to test out software, then you should be working closely with them anyway.

Well it isn't really, but what has got me where I am today within the company has been tenacity and refusing to listen to people who say things can't be done. Perhaps I'm lazy but I hate doing a computer's job for it, I like to find ways to automate as much as I can and sometimes that means trying new things out.

[Null_Byte]

For me continuous improvement is all about saving clicks. Have you seen Windows Desktop Search? Its more bloated than AOL! So whenever I search the network (because WDS can't index the network) I have to scroll to the bottom and click use the search companion. Pointless timewasting.

Well Continuous Improvement is one of those catch alls that means different things to different people. Either way if the search facility is one that is being used sufficiently often to warrant investigation then a better solution should be developed in conjunction with your IT people. Odd in this day and age to be searching for files on a network drive, Most places will have some sort of corporate sharepoint in place.

Another example is I extend my desktop onto a second monitor when in the office so I have to right click desktop and enable through the display properties before manually running multimon taskbar, when I could set up a script or AHK to do this automatically for me.

This is a perfect example of what I was talking about. multimon is only free for personal use, so unless your company has purchased a corporate licence for it, technically you are in breach. To be honest I actually prefer the windows default, if you need that much task bar real estate you're doing it wrong

I worded that wrong, I should have said trial versions. We are looking at new CRM tools but rather than install a trial I can only evaluate via the sales blurb videos.

Again, if you are looking at a new CRM, IT has to be involved, and hopefully fairly early on. A good CRM system integrates seamlessly with your other systems. Too often people will go out and try and buy something and then give it to IT and say "make it work". This almost never is successful. If IT are involved and there is a testing process then they should make those facilities available to you if that is what you are supposed to be doing.

For a brand new laptop the IT department have already made a good job of clogging it up with a load of rubbish, jeez it takes two or three minutes to boot up into a usable state

You clearly need a better IT department, I am available for hire.

Well it isn't really, but what has got me where I am today within the company has been tenacity and refusing to listen to people who say things can't be done. Perhaps I'm lazy but I hate doing a computer's job for it, I like to find ways to automate as much as I can and sometimes that means trying new things out.

Generally these goals will align with most IT departments. We constantly look to automate and improve. However these days it is often more important to adhere to best practices rather than going off and doing your own thing.

Changing one little thing here or there to save 3 or 4 people a couple of minutes a day, is often not worth the man months of time required to implement the change, or the continuous problems caused when it comes to upgrading or a unified IT strategy.

Really again, your best bet is to discuss this openly with your IT department. It sound like you should be working together and not in isolation - that's very counter kaizen

[98Ti]

Oddly while I was on the phone to our IT dept yesteday he dialed in and gave me full admin rights but I've no idea why! He just said "I've given you full admin rights btw, don't abuse it please". I was a bit preoccupied with trying to figure out the initial problem so it never occured to me to ask him why.

His bad tbh, it wont end well lmao. Now, where's my flash drive with all that knock off software? (IT Nige, if you're spying on me right now that was a joke ).

[radddogg]

I was hoping there was something I could do to sneak in the back door undetected

[98Ti]

I was hoping there was something I could do to sneak in the back door undetected

Rohypnol

[modern-messiah]

Why not use something like Virtual PC/Virtual box/VMware server to build a virtual XP machine to do your testing on?

Wouldn't clog up your computer with crap and a backup image of the machine can be restored in minutes. You would have to speak to your IT dept about this though due to licensing (Needing another XP license for example, but if a big company its probably corporate license so they'd probably be alright with it.)

[Cableguy]

You could be added to the power user group on the local policy which will allow you to install bits and bobs but is still fairly safe, this is what i do for clients that whinge about me having to do updates for them etc..

Although if your really resilient its very easy to gain Admin access to your laptop, boot from the xp cd.. go for a repair installation and when it gets to "installing devices" hit shift + F10 , this will give you a command prompt.. run nusrmgr.cpl from here and it will give you the user control panel ,change what you need to change ( probably better to just create yourself a local admin user ) save and exit and let the repair restart the pc.

[radddogg]

I had a presentation to do in front of our whole department and when I came to play a video file it wouldn't play as it needed a codec installing. My boss saw this so I used it as leverage for admin rights and approved it.

[Null_Byte]

If your IT manager doesn't now over rule your boss, you need a new IT manager

Any software like that should be remotely deployable either by imaging or install package wds/sccm etc.

Plus, you should have tested your presentation first to avoid embarrassment. Preparation, preparation, preparation, H.

[radddogg]

If your IT manager doesn't now over rule your boss, you need a new IT manager

Any software like that should be remotely deployable either by imaging or install package wds/sccm etc.

Plus, you should have tested your presentation first to avoid embarrassment. Preparation, preparation, preparation, H.

My boss is on the SMT so I don't think so. That was one example I gave, there were about ten others to do with kaizen that I listed in my justification - regedit to move desktop to network drive, install plug ins for video demos, uninstall desktop search as incompatible with network drives, macro security on my thisoutlooksession plus others.

My presentation was fine, I didn't give the whole story, the video was on a flash drive that a colleague brought with him on the day, we didn't know about this beforehand so were unable to test. You don't think I would have presented to my entire department without testing the ppt first do you? Talk about career suicide!