Developing Software in Visual Studio .NET with Non-Administrative Privileges

Developing Software in Visual Studio .NET with Non-Administrative Privileges

Security is important. No one argues with this and everyone spends a lot of time thinking about security issues, security bugs, and malicious users. However, very few people are willing make the effort to eradicate the largest single reason that e-mail viruses and cracks in general are so dangerous: everyone logs in as a user who is a member of the local Administrators group, and most services run as Administrators. The principle of "least privilege" states that running with the minimal set of rights needed to perform an action minimizes the damage done when something bad happens, whether it is a corrupt attachment in an e-mail received from Outlook, or a service that has a security risk. By running programs without Administrative privileges whenever possible, you ensure a more secure environment.

Currently available software often requires elevated privileges in order to run correctly. To end this situation, developers must take the first step and stop running as administrators. Then, if we all consistently log in, develop, and test applications as non-administrative users, the software we produce is more likely to be executable without artificial requirements of elevated privileges. Until developers fix the software they are writing and shipping, users will never be able to run in a secure environment, too!

Came across this while searching for some info and then it being a useful article, decided to blog it so that others who are facing problems with privilieges while working with Visual Studio.Net may find it useful

How to write content on MSDN Blogs?

Hey,

I was trying to get an account for myself on MSDN blogs and atlast got an account. But, when I tried to see the way to post content, I couldnot find any.

Is there a way to post content there?


Please do let me know.