Admin Rights Requests

[AMLinington]

Without going into too much detail, part of my job is implementing solutions that save time and improve the end-to-end customer experience. I have just put in a project to improve the process when users want to request local admin rights to their machines.

 

I've been asked to post an internal blog article about it and I'm looking for a funny caption for the Dr Evil Quote meme. Something vaguely innuendo-ridden that hints about how most users want admin rights so they can install P2P software or other dubious software clients they don't want us to know about.

 

My brain is failing me today and all I can come up with is this lame attempt:

 

 

So my question to you all is: What are the most ludicrous, blatantly fake or funniest reasons you've seen/heard from users asking for admin rights?

[Homer]

Hah... they don't!

[RichCowell]

Hah... they don't!

 

Same, I can't remember the last time someone asked, or the last time I needed to grant local admin rights to anyone...

[free780]

It's when you take it away you get the grief.

[ADMaster]

The most common reason I hear is I want in install X. The process is the same as any other request, submit a ticket.

 

In most cases I just push the software, or remote in and do it.

There have been a few cases I can change folder permissions to get around the need for admin.

 

Then I have just a few users with programs that need admin. In very rare cases I give them the local admin password, or elevate their account, then on GP refresh they are demoted.

[elsiegee40]

Ludicrous reason "Because I had it at my last place" or "Because the previous network manager always allowed it"

[3s-gtech]

I know our teachers never had admin rights, as I put the first PCs into classrooms for them to use. That saved a huge hassle! Have had some lame attempts to gain them, including on one Mac (which I conceded in the end, by taking it off domain and giving a local account). This was to 'work in an industry standard way'. That is to say, chopped about, filled with junk and barely useable. Thankfully withdrawn again now.

[atcoates]

Teachers be like..

[free780]

I know our teachers never had admin rights, as I put the first PCs into classrooms for them to use. That saved a huge hassle! Have had some lame attempts to gain them, including on one Mac (which I conceded in the end, by taking it off domain and giving a local account). This was to 'work in an industry standard way'. That is to say, chopped about, filled with junk and barely useable. Thankfully withdrawn again now.

"Industry Standard" trouble is that keeps changing. You'd think most software would want to get away from admin rights as a requirement.

[X-13]

I have just put in a project to improve the process when users want to request local admin rights to their machines.

 

Is it a bounce back from the helpdesk with the word "No", in size 42 font, bold, underlined and red?

[Norphy]

“Because I’m the head/manager/CEO”, aka “don’t you know who I am?”

[AMLinington]

Hah... they don't!

 

Same, I can't remember the last time someone asked, or the last time I needed to grant local admin rights to anyone...

 

Don't forget, I work in Higher Education - for a University in fact, so the policies are considerably more relaxed. Plenty of staff here need admin rights on their work machines for a variety of legitimate reasons - we see it commonly among academic staff and PhD research students - especially in fields involving high level IT work - Computer Science and programming, many MANY physics reasons, pretty much anything electronic or aeronautical and anything with massive amounts of computer analysis involving complex and bespoke software programs.

 

Then you have us in the Professional Services IT department - developers and network admins especially.

 

In most cases, we only grant temporary rights to allow the users to install the software they need, but for stuff that is not in the (already VAST) cache of network-installable software or stuff that needs admin-level permissions to run (usually anything the computer science guys need) we grant admin rights. But the user has to provide a legitimate business case and get approval from their Line Manager - it's not like Salt-bae - ALL THE ADMIN RIGHTS - we have a pretty rigorous process in place and local admin rights doesn't grant users any access to anything sensitive.

 

Is it a bounce back from the helpdesk with the word "No", in size 42 font, bold, underlined and red?

 

Ha ha, no, unfortunately not....

[witch]

mrwITch is always complaining that he cant install software - as a higher level Enterprise Software Technical Architect he often needs to look at new bits of kit. However, the reason he cant have local admin rights, is of course because in the past this privilege has been massively abused by the staff.

His biggest issue though is when he submits a ticket for something he really needs, and it takes weeks for IT to respond. He understands the issues and would be happy if the response times were just a bit quicker

Edited May 1, 2018 by witch

[AMLinington]

mrwITch is always complaining that he cant install software - as a higher level Enterprise Software Architect he often needs to look at new bits of kit. However, the reason he cant have local admin rights, is of course because in the past this privilege has been massively abused by the staff.

His biggest issue though is when he submits a ticket for something he really needs, and it takes weeks for IT to respond. He understands the issues and would be happy if the response times were just a bit quicker

 

Exactly - the problem here is that we simply don't have the resource to dedicate to installing and updating everything for every user that needs it. It's worth mentioning that 9 times out of 10, the Service Desk can remote on and install it for them, so they don't actually NEED admin rights, so in probably 80-90% of requests, they are closed as 'not required', but there are legitimate situations where admin rights are needed but we have a policy the users must agree to over and above the acceptable use policy, and if a user installs something that breaches this, it's a matter of misconduct.

 

My work is less about 'making this happen' than about 'processing the tickets more efficiently' - I am not involved with the 'front end' - I'm a 'Service Improvement Analyst' - my job is about making our department handle incidents and requests better. So the work I did was to create a form for users to complete online to request admin rights that basically demands all the correct information (because we all know how poor users are at supplying information first time) and has an automatic workflow that sends an approval request to line managers saving our Service Desk a bunch of time in poking the user for the right information.

[thimon]

Have LAPS installed here, so no local admin rights for anyone! To be fair the staff here are pretty good in understanding that only we can install software.

[SamanthaD]

I'm in HE as well, though outside the IT bubble. I need admin rights to run certain pieces of configuration software for our lectern control systems - we use Enhanced User Rights. Lets me do what I need to without full admin rights. Works for me!