Is there a difference?

[BlowDuckForQuack]

I'm a Sys Admin Intern for my company and some coworkers and I were arguing on whether there is a difference between:

Logging in as Local Admin > Installing a program

or

Logging in as Standard User > Installing a program (then it asks for admin password)

If anyone knows that breakdown of what actually happens or if there is a difference it would be appreciated!

From my understanding, reguardless of what user profile you install a program on, it is installed on the hidden built-in Administrator user profile. Any clarification?

[WickedStarfish]

Stolen from here - https://serverfault.com/questions/673297/whats-the-difference-between-running-a-program-as-a-domain-administrator-accoun

hope this helps

 

When you log on Windows creates an access token. This identifies you, the groups you are a member of and your privileges. And note that whether a user is an administrator or not is determined by whether the user is a member of the Administrators group.

Without UAC, when you run a program it gets a copy of the access token, and this controls what the program can access.

With UAC, when you run a program it gets a restricted access token. The is the original access token with "Administrators" removed from the list of groups (and some other changes). Even though your user is a member of the Administrators group, the program can't use Administrator privileges.

When you select "Run as Administrator" and your user is an administrator the program is launched with the original unrestricted access token. If your user is not an administrator you are prompted for an administrator account, and the program is run under that account.