r/sysadmin • u/Ok-Bench-1259 • 12d ago
Question Controls/Automation software question
Hello All
I'm installing a program for my controls department. The program is "KMC Connect", with it comes a sub-program utility that comes bundled with the software.
The sub-program utility in this case is , "Configure BACstat". The program only shows up when logged into as a local admin but when I'm logged into a standard user account (the technician who will be using this account). The program is not available.
I don't want to give the user local admin rights to run the program.
Is the only solution to make the user a local admin?
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u/Mehere_64 12d ago
What does the manual state? What does the vendor state?
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u/statikuz 12d ago
Well the last guy had the installer on a USB stick and the manual wasn't on there and the vendor has long since gone out of business and/or doesn't support this 23-year-old software anymore.
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u/Mehere_64 11d ago
Probably need to run as local admin then. 23 years ago there was not much in regards to security. Code was written in a way that required a lot of local admin stuff.
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u/Abe_Bazouie 12d ago
I wouldn’t make them local admin yet.
First figure out whether the program actually requires admin rights, or whether it was just installed only for your admin profile.
Log in as the standard user and check whether the executable exists under Program Files / Program Files (x86) and try launching it directly.
Also check where the shortcut was created. Some installers dump shortcuts under the installing user’s profile instead of the all-users Start Menu, which makes the app look like it “isn’t installed” for anyone else.
If the executable launches fine as a standard user, just fix the shortcut/install scope.
If it launches but throws permission errors, then find out what it’s trying to write to. Sometimes it’s something dumb like needing write access to a folder under Program Files, a registry key, COM port, service, etc.
I’d rather grant the specific permission it needs than give someone permanent local admin.
And if the vendor truly requires local admin just to run the utility, I’d be asking them why before accepting that design. :)))
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u/Ok-Bench-1259 11d ago
I can tell you that the executable is visible to the standard user if I go into the "Program Files (x86). I launched it directly from there as the standard user and it doesn't do anything. The cursor buffers for a second and that's all.
Dumb question but how do you figure out what it's writing too?
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u/Visual_Description60 12d ago
Try running it as admin from the technician account using saved credentials or a scheduled task trick, sometimes the app just needs elevated rights not a full admin login
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u/Ferretau 12d ago
See if the short is located in
%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
under the Local Admin account - if it is then you can try copying it to
%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
and see if it works.
If it doesn't Process Monitor can be used to dig into it's behaviour.
Process Monitor - Sysinternals | Microsoft Learn: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon
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u/Steve----O 12d ago
We had to make controls people local admins.
A. Controls software sucks for requiring admin to run.
B. The controls folks were having to change versions to match the hardware. ( we got around a lot of this with VMWare workstation on the laptops ).
C . They also needed to change IP addresses manually to connect to different hardware.