Solved System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin
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When you have a user that uses fonts quite a bit, how is the best way to allow them to manage that without giving them full admin rights to the desktop
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I'm not aware of any way to do this on Windows as fonts are computer wide.
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Ask for a one-time, comprehensive list of every font they will ever want installed, install them, keep admin rights away from user, profit!
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So this is showing my lack of Windows knowledge, but can you do a sym link to another folder?
mklink /D c:\users\user\fonts c:\windows\fonts
(Or wherever it stores the fonts)
Linux is easy, just add them to the .fonts folder in the users home folder.
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@RojoLoco said:
Ask for a one-time, comprehensive list of every font they will ever want installed, install them, keep admin rights away from user, profit!
That would work - if they weren't Graphic Artists working with Photoshop and etc on a daily basis....
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Did a solution ever get found?
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Hi,
I have a way of doing this, but works if UAC is off... .
Log on as administrator. Run command prompt as admin.
attrib -r -s %systemroot%\fonts
takeown /f "%systemroot%\fonts" /r /d n
(Although not necessary, you could give the Administrator full control on the fonts folder): icacls "%systemroot%\fonts" /grant administrators:F /t
You should now, be able to can now add or change permissions on the Fonts folder like any regular folder.
Give user(s) modify access to %systemroot%\Fonts
icacls "%systemroot%\fonts" /grant USERNAME ... you could even do a GROUP:M /t
Give user(s) modify access to %systemroot%\system32\fntcache.dat
icacls "%systemroot%\system32\FNTCACHE.dat" /grant USERNAMEorGROUP:M /t
Give user(s) modify access to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\Fonts
Let me know if this works for you
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@Veet said
I have a way of doing this, but works if UAC is off... .
No, don't do that ever
I nearly went apocalypse on a vendor who did just that, completely broke my ability to work on the client machines remotely because I could not elevate anything as admin and you completely disable the sandbox protections which have been in place since Windows Vista.
https://woorkup.com/install-fonts-without-administrator-access/
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@Breffni-Potter said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@Veet said
I have a way of doing this, but works if UAC is off... .
No, don't do that ever
I nearly went apocalypse on a vendor who did just that, completely broke my ability to work on the client machines remotely because I could not elevate anything as admin and you completely disable the sandbox protections which have been in place since Windows Vista.
https://woorkup.com/install-fonts-without-administrator-access/
I work with a few medical clients, and all their software requires UAC to be off (and some the firewall as well). It's nuts.
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@BRRABill Once had that with a vet clinic. Pure crap. Their software also stated that you couldn't run it on a virtualized environment. This is going back about 4 years.
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@Breffni-Potter said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@Veet said
I have a way of doing this, but works if UAC is off... .
No, don't do that ever
I nearly went apocalypse on a vendor who did just that, completely broke my ability to work on the client machines remotely because I could not elevate anything as admin and you completely disable the sandbox protections which have been in place since Windows Vista.
https://woorkup.com/install-fonts-without-administrator-access/
I agree ... Turning UAC is not recommended ... But, what does one do, when a application just won't work, until UAC is turned off .. .
@BRRABill said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@Breffni-Potter said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@Veet said
I have a way of doing this, but works if UAC is off... .
No, don't do that ever
I nearly went apocalypse on a vendor who did just that, completely broke my ability to work on the client machines remotely because I could not elevate anything as admin and you completely disable the sandbox protections which have been in place since Windows Vista.
https://woorkup.com/install-fonts-without-administrator-access/
I work with a few medical clients, and all their software requires UAC to be off (and some the firewall as well). It's nuts.
Yep, I face this ever so often ... What is the solution ?
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The correct solution is.
If the application wants to have access to certain folders, you give the user permission to those folders/files and so on. There are auditing tools that will tell you what a program is trying to access and run.
Conversely, if an app wants to have the firewall off, you ask the vendor what ports need to be open. Again, there might be tools which scan a program to see what it is trying to do when it is communicating.
Finally, fire the software vendor who built that app, UAC has been out for 10 years. If in 10 years they can't be bothered to update their software to a more modern way of working, what else can't they be bothered to do?
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@tiagom said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@BRRABill Once had that with a vet clinic. Pure crap. Their software also stated that you couldn't run it on a virtualized environment. This is going back about 4 years.
I'm facing the exact same situation ... I cannot Virtualize a client's server, cause they run a third-party application, and the vendor says that they will not support the app, if it's running on a VM.... What a load of B.S !!
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@Veet said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@tiagom said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@BRRABill Once had that with a vet clinic. Pure crap. Their software also stated that you couldn't run it on a virtualized environment. This is going back about 4 years.
I'm facing the exact same situation ... I cannot Virtualize a client's server, cause they run a third-party application, and the vendor says that they will not support the app, if it's running on a VM.... What a load of B.S !!
You can always just not tell them.
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@Veet said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@tiagom said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@BRRABill Once had that with a vet clinic. Pure crap. Their software also stated that you couldn't run it on a virtualized environment. This is going back about 4 years.
I'm facing the exact same situation ... I cannot Virtualize a client's server, cause they run a third-party application, and the vendor says that they will not support the app, if it's running on a VM.... What a load of B.S !!
This is when I would always push hard on the customer and ask them if the vendor can't support the most basic, fundamental desployment best practices, how can you trust them to support anything or to make reliable software. It doesn't mean that they can't, but it's reason enough to be really, really worried.
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@Veet said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@tiagom said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@BRRABill Once had that with a vet clinic. Pure crap. Their software also stated that you couldn't run it on a virtualized environment. This is going back about 4 years.
I'm facing the exact same situation ... I cannot Virtualize a client's server, cause they run a third-party application, and the vendor says that they will not support the app, if it's running on a VM.... What a load of B.S !!
Then demonstrate to the client what they are missing out on. You are their technical adviser, present them the business losses by continuing with this method.
How many downsides can you think of by not going virtual? Help them make an informed choice with all the facts.
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@Breffni-Potter said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@Veet said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@tiagom said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@BRRABill Once had that with a vet clinic. Pure crap. Their software also stated that you couldn't run it on a virtualized environment. This is going back about 4 years.
I'm facing the exact same situation ... I cannot Virtualize a client's server, cause they run a third-party application, and the vendor says that they will not support the app, if it's running on a VM.... What a load of B.S !!
Then demonstrate to the client what they are missing out on. You are their technical adviser, present them the business losses by continuing with this method.
How many downsides can you think of by not going virtual? Help them make an informed choice with all the facts.
And that would indicate that there is probably a competitor out there with a better product that has been missed. there are exceptions, but it's pretty rare that no one makes good software. Customers love to claim that they are stuck with one vendor, but that is almost never the case.
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@gjacobse said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@RojoLoco said:
Ask for a one-time, comprehensive list of every font they will ever want installed, install them, keep admin rights away from user, profit!
That would work - if they weren't Graphic Artists working with Photoshop and etc on a daily basis....
If they are only working with Adobe software, they can put fonts in %appdata%\Adobe\fonts folder. Just make sure it's not in %localappdata%.
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@StrongBad said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@Veet said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@tiagom said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@BRRABill Once had that with a vet clinic. Pure crap. Their software also stated that you couldn't run it on a virtualized environment. This is going back about 4 years.
I'm facing the exact same situation ... I cannot Virtualize a client's server, cause they run a third-party application, and the vendor says that they will not support the app, if it's running on a VM.... What a load of B.S !!
You can always just not tell them.
Yeah, I've done that, in the past, with another client... and it did not pan-out well ... It so happened that the app kept popping-up some error message (which, I am 100% sure was not to due it being run on a VM).. It ran perfectly fine on a VM, for almost a year... The vendor tried sorting it out remotely, but could not. So, they decided to visit on-site ... Upon seeing it running on VM, the guy, instantly blamed the issue on the VM, and said that the app would be supported, only if it were running on a physical host ... Eventually, I was held accountable, as I had proposed shifting to a VM ... We were forced to move back to a Physical server .. This was back in 2014 ... But, lesson learnt ..
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@scottalanmiller said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@Breffni-Potter said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@Veet said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@tiagom said in System Fonts: Installing when not an Admin:
@BRRABill Once had that with a vet clinic. Pure crap. Their software also stated that you couldn't run it on a virtualized environment. This is going back about 4 years.
I'm facing the exact same situation ... I cannot Virtualize a client's server, cause they run a third-party application, and the vendor says that they will not support the app, if it's running on a VM.... What a load of B.S !!
Then demonstrate to the client what they are missing out on. You are their technical adviser, present them the business losses by continuing with this method.
How many downsides can you think of by not going virtual? Help them make an informed choice with all the facts.
And that would indicate that there is probably a competitor out there with a better product that has been missed. there are exceptions, but it's pretty rare that no one makes good software. Customers love to claim that they are stuck with one vendor, but that is almost never the case.
I wish it were that simple ... Things for the client to consider, before shifting to a better product ...
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Cost of Shifting to a new product ...
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Migrating the data from the existing product to the new one
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Training
So, more often that not, the client would just prefer to stick with the existing software .. Infact, doing so, would, more often than not, work-out to be the cheaper option, as compared to shifting to a new product, just so that their servers can be Virtualized ..
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