Windows XP/2000: Working without administrator rights

Hoping some people can offer some advice.

We have recently taken all users out of the Local Administrators group
on their PCs (not our choice but the powers that be). All users are now
either Users or Power Users.

This has become a nightmare in that we now need to log users of and on
in order to make any changes. I am after some tips to help make this
easier.

Here is what I am utilizing so far:

- Remote Assistance (XP Only)
- "Run As" from installing some programs

Is there any way to do the following without having to log on as an
administrator on their PC?

- Modify the registry
- Run System Tools (eg Disk Defragmenter)
- Install programs
- Modify the hosts file

We have limited access to a single group policy for our OU but at this
stage no rights to create additional ones.

Happy to hear any scripting solutions as well.

Roger
Wed Jul 27 22:02:16 CDT 2005


<o_jay83@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1122516801.660616.164100@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> Hoping some people can offer some advice.
>
> We have recently taken all users out of the Local Administrators group
> on their PCs (not our choice but the powers that be). All users are now
> either Users or Power Users.
>
> This has become a nightmare in that we now need to log users of and on
> in order to make any changes. I am after some tips to help make this
> easier.
>
> Here is what I am utilizing so far:
>
> - Remote Assistance (XP Only)
> - "Run As" from installing some programs
>
> Is there any way to do the following without having to log on as an
> administrator on their PC?
>
> - Modify the registry

remote script run by a domain account that is admin on the target
machine or when local runas or via GPO

> - Run System Tools (eg Disk Defragmenter)

run them remotely over network using domain account that has
admin on the target or when local runas

> - Install programs

runas, or via software distribution with GPO, or ever with
hand crafted script

> - Modify the hosts file
>

change NTFS permissions of the hosts file

> We have limited access to a single group policy for our OU but at this
> stage no rights to create additional ones.
>
> Happy to hear any scripting solutions as well.
>

o_jay83
Wed Jul 27 22:20:05 CDT 2005

Can you give me an example of such a script that will allow a registry
edit when run by a non-admin account?

How do you run Defrag over the network? Where do you specify the admin
account?