Disagree. There are very very very good reasons why not everyone should have administrator privileges on their work computer. Our IT department did give our GIS department the privilege but we had to do some minor training.
There are very very very good reasons why not everyone should have administrator privileges on their work computer.
Maybe so, but:
Why would you need to change your license level often enough for it to be an issue? I have not changed my license level on my work computer in 15 years. I sometimes remote into a client who only has 3 licenses and I sometimes have to lower mine on their computer.
Very Reason one: If you don't know a reason why people should not be allowed to make registry entry changes on a work computer you should not be messing with it. People can install anything, bring in things to your organization, change settings, delete critical elements etc...
Very Reason two: You could take down your network
Very Reason three: Targeted malware can get into your network via an administrator without them knowing it
Very Reason four: Employees tend to find programs on the internet and install them on a work computer. Often does not hurt anything but often as not it can
Very Reason five: Did I mention Malware. Users tend to click the OK button without comprehending what can happen.
Very Reason six: The user can change settings that IT (the people who really know about networks and computer safety because they live it day to day) has put in place.
Sorry that is six very's as an argument and I will quit at that.
Rationale for changing license level, which I hinted at before: it allows cost savings.
And I'm not proposing any discussion of whether users should have admin access to their work machines - it was never the issue. My pointing out that "very very very" is hardly compelling argumentation was simply a bonus bit of snark.
Reason why users in our organization need to have ability to change license levels, and even license manager thru ArcGIS Administrator (one being, as Chuck mention, tied to cost)
In our offices, after several requests by a user to have tech support staff make the change as an administrator, typically they are give the admin rights for their machine. We are all "professional staff", in theory anyway, so there does have to be some trust there that the user will not abuse this right (admin right policies have changes back and forth over the years). Typically users are now aware that they shouldn't just click on everything in emails and/or download and install everything they see on the internet.
So, it would be nice if the license level, and license manager, could be modified without computer administration rights. However, my guess is, because this change currently makes a change in the registry (which typically does require admin rights too), this is not a trivial change. But I'm voting it up too (even though this "idea" has been around for a long time).
edit: however, Curtis Price suggestion KB link (first comment) is a workaround, although not necessarily convenient for casual user....but might be a link I add to my internal "Troubleshooting" page. (the KB article seems to only cover thru 10.2.2, and doesn't mention newer, or any OSs).
Exactly, exactly. Buying 55 Advanced licenses would cost much more than 5 Advanced and 50 Basic, simple as that.
I agree 100% with this request but it's already 4 years since the request was added and still no enhancement. Anyway, there is a kluge workaround that I don't have enough still to program. ArcMap and ArcCatalog can be started up in any of the licensing levels by using batch files where a variable named ESRI_SOFTWARE_CLASS is set to Professional or Viewer. But when using the method a user has to navigate to MXDs only after starting up the ArcMap / ArcCatalog.
Does anyone know how to add options to the right button click action in Windows Explorer to show two options for files with a .mxd extension, one for the Advanced and another for Basic? I think that would be useful workaround since ESRI can't or won't do the requested enhancement.
Thanks
You must be a registered user to add a comment. If you've already registered, sign in. Otherwise, register and sign in.