Software Tools

Good Grief!

  • Installing/using Windows Terminal is blocked just because it's an MSIXBundle? Fine, I'm using the portable version
  • winget is blocked by GPO? For goodness sake.
  • 7zip gets uninstalled even though I installed using Software Center. Twice.
  • What about just logging into my laptop with my elevated profile? No good. Teams won't work, for example.
  • I could do the wrong thing and add my regular account as a machine Administrator. But I won't.
  • Some preinstalled apps won't upgrade from winget. MS 365, Teams, Chrome.
  • Why is there such friction to updating my machine? I should be able to run winget upgrade --all. Done!
  • I have more/easier permission/control on our web servers than on my laptop.

Why not this way?
Why aren't we just adding the developer's account to machine Administrators?

I understand we may need a special AD elevated account for other network operations, but for enabling laptop Admin access, is this an acceptable way?

Some reading.

Examples

Perfect example. I need to be able to troubleshoot a problem by using IIS Server. I can add the feature, but not run IIS.

2023-11-29
Hey, 7zip is in Software Center for me again! But why bother trying to install? Fool me thrice, shame on me!

Clicking these notifications almost never does anything.

Pbl = Portable version available

Tool Lic UAC Pbl URL Notes
MUST HAVE
Visual Studio 2022 Pro Y Y N https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/
Visual Studio Code N N Y https://code.visualstudio.com/download UserSetup, Portable mode
Git for Windows N N N https://gitforwindows.org/
PowerBI Desktop N Y N https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=58494 also has Store app
SQL Server Developer N Y N https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-downloads incl SSIS
SQL Server Management Studio N Y N https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/ssms/download-sql-server-management-studio-ssms
PowerShell 7.x N Y ? https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/ MSI
LINQPad Y Y Y https://www.linqpad.net/ No UAT on portable
Notepad++ N Y Y https://notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads/
Windows Terminal N N Y https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/terminal/ portable settings in %AppData%
Azure CLI N N N https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/ MSI
winget N Y N https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/winget/ good grief, it's the MS package mgr. Don't block.
NVM for Windows N Y N https://github.com/coreybutler/nvm-windows
ShareX N N Y https://getsharex.com/
HIGH VALUE
Microsoft RDC Manager N N Y https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/rdcman
7-zip N Y N https://www.7-zip.org/download.html
Oh-My-Posh N N N https://ohmyposh.dev/ Run non-elevated installer script
KDiff3 N N N https://download.kde.org/stable/kdiff3/?C=M;O=D unknown publisher,
Postman Y N N https://www.postman.com/ web
Insomnia (Postman alt) ? N N https://insomnia.rest/ and https://github.com/Kong/insomnia No lic or account req for single-user
Nightingale (Postman alt) N N N https://github.com/jenius-apps/nightingale-rest-api-client Downloadable MSIXBUNDLE (Store app installer)
Fiddler N N N https://www.telerik.com/download/fiddler
Ditto N Y Y https://ditto-cp.sourceforge.io/
Balsamiq Wireframes Y N Y https://balsamiq.com/wireframes/desktop/
UltraFileSearch ? Y N https://www.ultrafilesearch.com/ MSI, unknown publisher
Oracle VirtualBox N N N https://www.virtualbox.org/
LIKE
FreeCommander XE N Y Y https://freecommander.com/en/summary/
ASK WHO USES
FileZilla FTP N N Y https://filezilla-project.org/download.php?type=client Answer "No" to UAT prompt to install for local user
Git Bash N Part of Git for Windows
LOW VALUE
Snip & Sketch N Windows 10, but not 11, and a bad tool
DO NOT USE
Greenshot N https://getgreenshot.org/ Last release 8/17. Shouldn't use.
  • = Licensed app ! = App install triggers UAC

Note that some apps have portable versions which, of course, don't trigger UAC.

MUST HAVE Visual Studio 2022 Pro*! Visual Studio Code Git for Windows PowerBI Desktop! SQL Server Developer! SQL Server Management Studio! PowerShell 7.x! LINQPad*! Notepad++! Windows Terminal Azure CLI winget (Windows Package Manager)! NVM for Windows! ShareX

HIGH VALUE Microsoft RDC Manager 7-zip! Oh-My-Posh KDiff3! Postman* Insomnia (Postman alt)? Fiddler! Ditto! Balsamiq Wireframes UltraFileSearch!

LIKE FreeCommander XE!

ASK WHO USES FileZilla FTP Git Bash

LOW VALUE Snip & Sketch

DO NOT USE Greenshot