Bad Design: SDM Admin Rights Requirement

[MikhailCompo]

We, like most Entrerprise organisations in the defence industry work in a restricted environment. Therefore, we obviously do not allow internet access by any administrator accounts. We facilitate this through a proxy pac file as well as other mecahnisms.

For SDM to require administrator acccess purely so that it can update itself seems like a very poor design decision which limits the potential customer base of SDM. Admin rights to install, standard user to run. That is the common best practice that nearly all software adheres to - even apps with auto-update features (Adobe Flash and Reader, Google Chrome, Foxit Enterprise etc. etc. etc. etc.....)

A much better design would be to inform the user that there is a newer version of the software and to facilitate the download through SDM (as it is a DOWNLOAD manager, not an autoupdate program.....), allowing the user to choose when to install the update, by whatever means.

Alternatively, the software coule employ an auto-update mechanism thorugh a service like the above apps.

Forcing admin is simply narrow minded in my view, and renders the software completely useless to us.

I would welcome any comments from HP on the decisions making process they had with SDM?

[wube]

Hi Mike,

SDM requires administrator access not only to update itself but also in order to install the selected softpaqs on the local machine.

However, we will consider to require the administrator permission only while needed.

As part of SDM team, I appreciate your valuable feedback on the SDM design.

Sincerely,

Benjamin

[MikhailCompo]

Softpaq DOWNLOAD Manager or Softpaq INSTALLATION Manager??

Sounds like mission creap to me - How many enterprise customers do you really think use SDM to install drivers?

With that design model, how long before SSM has a driver download feature???...

And again - If you adhering to software best practices and Microsoft recommendations, the software WOULD NOT run entirely with admin righths, it would trigegr UAC for the features in the product that require admin rights.

Connecting to the internet with admin rights is a totally unucessary risk.