This is the mail archive of the cygwin-apps mailing list for the Cygwin project.


Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]
Other format: [Raw text]

RE: [GOLDSTAR] Re: [PATCH] setup: allow running as non-admin


Corinna Vinschen sent the following at Saturday, November 09, 2013 5:20 AM
>Maybe I'm dense but I don't quite understand it. Under 32 bit, a tool
>called "setup-foo" will be recognized as an installer binary. Therefore
>the "helpful" UAC installer recognition will try to start setup-x86 as
>an installer with admin permissions, asking for consent (default for
>admin accounts) or admin credentials (default for non-admin accounts).
>
>How was it possible at all to start 32 bit setup as normal user, without
>getting the elevation prompt?
>
>Or, hmm...
>
>[do you hear me thinking?]
>
>...does the UAC installer recognition only kick in for an UAC crippled
>admin account but not for a normal user account?
>
>[...testing...]
>
>I just started an older setup-x86 on Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 using
>a non-admin user account, and in both cases I have been asked for
>administrator credentials.
>
>Which means, I still don't understand how anybody ran setup from
>http://cygwin.com/setup-x86.exe as a normal user account without being
>asked for admin creds.
>
>Unless the admins of these machines have switched off the installer
>recognition. In that case non-admins could simply start setup-x86 from
>the net and now they can't anymore. Do we still want to support this?

If support is dropped, the Cygwin home page should explain what
non-admins need to do to install 32 bit Cygwin.

The solution on this list has long been "download and rename to
foo.exe".  That could be done for all by renaming
http://cygwin.com/setup-x86.exe to http://cygwin.com/getcygwin32.exe.

I've often wondered whether there is a reason why this hasn't been
done before.  If there is, I'd be interested in learning why, for
my education.  Is there a benefit to having an installer name that
includes "setup" or "install"?  (If there is, I'll drop the topic.)

This is a suggestion, not a request.  This doesn't affect me because I
almost never run setup from the browser.  I run it off my hard disk,
downloading updates when they are released.

Thanks,

- Barry
  Disclaimer: Statements made herein are not made on behalf of NIAID.

Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]