Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Privilege Authority for Windows

Our friends at Scriptlogic recently released Privilege Authority – a free tool that gives Windows administrators granular control over administration rights for the first time. IT teams can create “elevation rules” specifying the Windows features, applications or ActiveX controls that end users can manipulate, while maintaining restrictions on all other functions. Those rules are transferred to the desktop client using Group Policy eliminating the need to install any new software.

ScriptLogic has also launched the Privilege Authority Community Forum, where Privilege Authority users can exchange rules that allow for certain end user configuration changes. Some rules are already available providing the ability for end users to access system properties, run iTunes® and BlackBerry® Desktop installers, install an Adobe® Flash® Player after download, and run Adobe® Reader®. More than 5,000 IT administrators downloaded Privilege Authority in the 24 hours following availability.

In addition to elevation rules, which are created by a template wizard, Privilege Authority also features:
  • Common Rules: Privilege Authority ships with several pre-configured common rules that are already designed to handle the most common elevation requirements in organizations today.
  • Automatic update of rules: Privilege Authority regularly checks the Privilege Authority Community Forum for updated common rules and downloads new rules when they are available.
If you’re interested in managing Windows desktop privileges this is a tool that you should check out. And best of all, it’s free!

No comments: