Google chrome installs just fine WITHOUT admin rights.
Guess they don't know what they are doing.....
Google Chrome uses a special C# application to perform an install from the web (you can tell this from the "Launching Application" dialog that pops up for a moment). The special C# application is managed code, so the OS knows exactly what the code can and cannot do, and there is no security issue. Google Chrome is jumping through extensive hoops to install without triggering any security prompts. To be fair, the complaint here is really about the Windows OS UAC stuff, not about SlickEdit per se. The benefits of such an installer may or may not be worth the investment for the SlickTeam, I won't try to guess at that.
There is NO reason admin rights are required to install any program except for a lack of understanding of security. If a program doesn't have files that go in sensitive places, then restricted level privileges are just fine. If a program doesn't need files to go in those places, then why put them there?
Installing for all users requires admin privs, installing for me, shouldn't.
In principle, I completely agree. But given the current state of Windows, the statement is only achieveable when using managed code. Admin rights may not be required IF the install is performed by managed code and IF the installer does not try to perform any sensitive operations.
If you install SlickEdit from a CD, then you
don't need admin access.
If you download the SlickEdit MSI installer and
Unblock it before launching, then you
don't need admin access.
If you download the SlickEdit MSI installer and launch it without Unblocking it, then you
do need admin access.
I agree with your expectations, but there currently really are technical issues with achieving those perfectly reasonable expectations. The only workarounds are to Unblock the downloaded file, or turn off UAC, or write a managed code installer.
I am disappointed that the MSI technology in Windows does not take advantage of what it knows about the MSI package to at least avoid the UAC prompt if the MSI package doesn't try to run any native code.
However, it is worth noting that the C# installer approach is going to be a security problem down the road: it allows any untrusted web site to run managed code to install native code onto your computer, which is then run later. It's really a security hole, and it wouldn't surprise me if it gets plugged in the future.