Privilege elevation

[unixronin]

Goose asked to have some more games installed on her recently-rebuilt computer today.  So we pulled down the CDs, went through them to find which ones she wanted, and started making and mounting VirtualCD images (we try to avoid letting the kids have the physical CDs, because they don't take care of them and the CDs end up scratched or broken) and installing games.

Or, as it turns out, not.  When I recreated Goose's account, I set her up as a "power user" with the privileges to install software.  She could only install one of the games she'd picked out; all the others demanded administrator privileges in order to install.

Now, we're talking about children's educational games here.  Big Thinkers, Spy Fox, Clue Finders, this kind of stuff.  Humongous Entertainment, The Learning Company, Brøderbund, Richard Scarry, and the like.  What on EARTH can these games possibly be doing that requires they be installed with administrator privileges?!?  HELLO?

Comments

[attutle.livejournal.com]

What on EARTH can these games possibly be doing that requires they be installed with administrator privileges?

Wait, I think I know this one. is the answer "Adding another hole to your security sieve."?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I hope not..... but given how hot they are on making you register, I guess I wouldn't put it past The Learning Company to install some kind of spyware, even if it's just parent-monitoring-child spyware.

[radarrider.livejournal.com]

They require the ability to do one or both of the following:

-Write to protected folders
-Write to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE section of the registry

A lot of games still don't handle restricted access correctly (I think Doom 3 even has a problem with it). Usually they'll install fine, though you may have to be an Administrator to install them, but they won't run fine if you're not an Administrator because they want to store saved game files in their install folder. The only games I've seen so far that really handle this well are the Max Payne games which store saved games in a folder under your My Documents folder.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yup, you'd think by now the game makers could get it right.

I really don't want to have to give a 9-year-old Administrator privileges just to be able to run games.

alot of cut and paste

[dustgrl.livejournal.com]

Quite a few people who write installers have no idea how to write an installer. They just copy over a base skeleton installer and then fill it in with their own products installationy goodness.

Unfortunately alot of these skeletons start with a check for administrator, even if they don't need that priv, and end with a call to reboot the machine, even if once again, there is no need.

Re: alot of cut and paste

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing..."