I've always run my system as an administrator account in order to avoid issues with permissions and so forth when installing and running more "complex" software such as an Avid system.  However, I see more and more recommendations these days saying that there are too many potential security issues with doing this -- i.e. that you should run as a "normal" user instead of as an "administrator," and use the "run as administrator" ability when needed.  Based on my reading over the years, the problem up to now has been that this does not always work -- i.e. that some installs, for example, would not complete correctly or would not result in full functionality.  The most common recommendation for people running more "complex" software (i.e. audio or video editing and creation software, for example) has therefore typically been to just use the system under an "administrator" account.

Now that security issues have become so common, have we reached a point where the recommendation for Avid systems is to use a "normal" account and use the "run as" capability?  Or, is it still recommended to use an administrator account with Avid systems?  I want to use the highest level of secuity I reasonably can, but I just want to avoid any potential headaches down the road.

For this coversation, I'm requesting that we don't get sidetracked in a discussion about creating an "avid only" system and using another system for everything else.  A lot of people don't have the luxury of using seperate systems.  It's quite common to create a single, powerful system and use it for everything, so I'd like to keep the discussion along these lines.

Thanks for any feedback on this,

Larry

That's a good question, Larry. I don't have an answer but I have noticed in Windows 10 that even when you are logged-in as a member of the administrators group, you don't have full administrator rights and often have to confirm actions (this is a change Microsoft made to the notion of administrator specifically to address some of the concerns you mentioned).

I have not noticed MC triggering prompts for administrator access but I am running under an account belonging to the administrators group.

I would suspect that with today's heightened cyber-security concerns that a company such as Avid could not promote the notion of having to run an app under an administrator account. Only during installation (my guess).

Are you in a position to test this theory?

If larry isn't, I am. I suspect that it won't work for some functions, but it's easy enough for me to test.

BarkinMadd:

Are you in a position to test this theory?

No -- not at this time.  I'm just starting to look toward my next system build, and this question keeps coming up.

The thing that I'm seeing others saying is essentially that there is "no need" to login as an admin user anymore, not even for installing programs.  Their position is that you can simply use the "run as" option which will come up as needed.  This is the part that I'm really unclear about -- i.e. if there are any gotchas when running as a "normal" user.  My fear is that some things won't work correctly, and I won't have any indication as to whether or not the account type is to blame, making troubleshooting that much more difficult.

Even Microsoft seems to be advising people to not use an administrator account.  Here is one of the statements from MS about this which, ironically, is from a few years ago when win7 was still standard (i.e. from when running an administrator account was, in my opinion, still considered the norm):

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc730864(v=ws.11).aspx

I've always run my system using an administrator account, so I have no idea if it I could have used a normal account instead without issue.  I'm hoping that some people more in the know about this will help answer this question more definitively.

Thanks again,

Larry

For many years I have been doing Avid uninstalls / installs as admin, launching the new Avid install the first time as admin but only allowing the operations crew to run Avid from a user account. This goes for Win 7 Pro 64 and Yosemite up to MC 8.6.5.

Don

DonE:

For many years I have been doing Avid uninstalls / installs as admin, launching the new Avid install the first time as admin but only allowing the operations crew to run Avid from a user account. This goes for Win 7 Pro 64 and Yosemite up to MC 8.6.5.

Don

So you install under a different account from the one/s it ends up being used under?  One of my concerns was that this might be a cause of some issues in certain circumstances.

Can it be installed under a normal account using the "run as admin" option when it comes up, or is it still critcal to actually do the install while logged in as an admininstrator?

Thanks,

Larry

Way back with Win XP we ran under admin. Starting with our first Win 7 Pro 64 and MC 5.5 I started install and operation as described. I got the idea from Avid. This is from README_v5.5.1_AvidMediaComposer.pdf.

Standard User
You need to first install the editing application as an Administrator. If you are in a Shared
Storage environment, mount your workspaces as an Administrator. You may then log off and
log back in as a Standard user, if necessary.

Later Avid talked about launching the new install as admin the first time and I have stuck with that. We have been an EditShare user but always mount shared storage in the standard user account we run MC from. I don't feel we have ever had problems related to running this way.

I have never tried the "run as admin" idea.

Don

Thanks again for the replies on this subject -- all opinions are very helpful.

One clarification:  If I run as a standard user, do I need to log off and back on again as an administrator every time I install software?  Or, if I install under a standard user account, will I get an administrator password pop-up when I do an install?

While I'm inclinded to start running as a "standard" user in windows 10, I'm still hearing from friends who run admininstrator accounts in order to avoid what they characterize as various "hassles" -- not just with Avid specifically, but with various "workstation" software like DAW or high end 3D production applications.  The thinking seems to be that some software expects to be running under an administrator account, and that some "parts" of such software will behave in unexpected ways if it's run under a standard user.

I'm therefore still looking for more info on this if possible so I can get a better idea of how much of an overall consensus there is to run as a "standard" user.

Any other opinions on this would be appreciated, particularly from users that use or have experience running a variety of higher end applications like those mentioned above.

Thanks again,

Larry

I'm just picking up on this thread. I teach at a university where we have many Media Composer installations. I've had my admin rights taken away by IT so all I can do is advise on installations. The original Media Composer installation needs to be done and run once on an Admin account. After that, we launch the application as normal users. This is usually trouble-free, although I had a few instances of normal users being unable to save changes to Site Settings but this has not been consistent.

We do have issues with the way the student accounts are implemented, however. They are all network accounts (no local accounts allowed). Also, we create one master machine and that image is then rolled out to 50 or 60 iMacs. Something in this setup has given us recurring problems with the Title Tool and Marquee. Either they'll fail to launch, or they'll launch but no background video can be seen or we find we can't save any titles. I've had a case open with Avid for some time but they can't throw any light on the matter unless I can tell them more about how our accounts are operated and I haven't had any joy from our IT department on that!

Usually a restart fixes things fror a while so I advise all students to restart their Mac before editing.

HTH.

I now realise that this is the PC forum - sorry!

Roger Shufflebottom:

I now realise that this is the PC forum - sorry!

That's okay.  Even though your report was about macs, it essentially demonstrates what I'm talking about, which is the idea that some "pieces" of certain apps don't always behave predictably even when they're supposed to.  I guess my question comes down to how thoroughly win10 tackles this issue.

On a related note, based on what I'm seeing in windows 10, it appears that whenever you get to a situation that requires an admin account, you get a popup that asks for an admin password.  Do the win10 users here stay in the standard user account and use this popup for software installation, or do they fully log out and log in under a different account that has admin access?  The problem that I run into with loging off/on is that it requires repeating setup procedures for simple things like OS and browser settings.  It would make things much easier if I could just stay in the standard account and enter the password when needed, but I'm not sure if this works consistantly or not.

Thanks again for feedback on this,

Larry