It's also the default policy of my work, a university. Staff do have local administrator access to their machines, but are not supposed to use it for regular operations for safety.
Once the software is installed, I can use it from my regular account.
> Staff do have local administrator access to their machines, but are not supposed to use it for regular operations for safety.
The point of this exercise is that installing random software from the Internet shouldn't be a regular operation; users should take extra care when doing it.
So...elevate permissions when you need to perform this new administrative task? I don't see how that changes the crux of the matter (you still are the de facto admin, even though you've applied artificial constraints to yourself, because you hold the admin credentials).
Do you use macOS?
> Do you use macOS?
Almost exclusively.
They should be able to download and app and use it without having to call tech support.
Anti-user features like intrusive telemetry are standard fare in commercial software, and running those apps in a sandbox could protect the user without having to rely on Apple's approval system.
It isn't if the user wants to use software that isn't available on the App Store.
Arbitrary programs can be run with the macOS sandbox, there is no need for the App Store for security.
Accounts ought to be granted privileges based on the user's need to get things done.
Most consumer laptops and PCs I've seen (and I've seen a lot) don't even have a non-admin user account setup.
in macOS, even if you run as admin, the only thing that gives you is `sudo` access. Your "admin" user still is a normal user, but it's allowed to gain elevated privileges by supplying their password (or doing biometric auth).
The only difference between running as an admin and not running as an admin is that in the former case you don't have to type in your user name.
>having to elevate to an admin account in order to "download anything" would be a nightmare for any substantial IT department to support
normal users can download all they want. They can't execute it though. That's absolutely what I would like my machine to be configured as.
Who disagrees with that? For most users, by a long shot, installing software is only a tiny fraction of the tasks they perform.
Anybody, including that substantial IT department has to elevate to an admin account to install software, and that is a good thing.
Any halfway smart IT department won’t have to type an admin password on every machine or even visit every machine, though.
> Most consumer laptops and PCs I've seen (and I've seen a lot) don't even have a non-admin user account setup.
Have you ever used macOS or are you basing this on Windows laptops?