> The IT team promises they'll speed things up, but a software approval for 1 app still takes at least 3 months. Now what?

Ouch.

I wonder if those apps are one-off for particular task or you just find so many useful apps every day. Anyway, Windows now features Sandbox mode - a great place to install untrusted apps as the sandbox is discarded on close. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-pr...