Is it realistic to run Visual Studio and friends without local admin access?

[Bulldog13]

Is it realistic to run Visual Studio (2010 -> 2015) without local administrative access ?

I am looking to hire some interns this semester to do .NET development (MVC and WinForms). There are some security concerns, so I would like to provide them with regular user access, otherwise it could turn into a headache of paperwork and waiting.

Is it feasible that once I have installed all possible programs they might use, that they could do regular coding without admin rights?

Does anyone have any first hand experience doing this ?

The only things I see them using are Git, VS, SQL Server, and different browsers.

 

[purbeast0]

that shouldn't be a problem at all. i have a local admin account on my pc at work, but the one i log in with is non-admin and i can develop and use git and do all other tasks necessary to develop with no problem. granted, i'm using intellij and not visual studio, but i don't see why that would be any different. one of my previous jobs i used VS no problem and didn't have admin. this was 5+ years ago so not sure if things have changed since then.

 

[KB]

I use Visual Studio using my non-Admin account and everything works fine. I remember VS 2003 had issues with debugging, but it hasn't been an issue since 2005.

In fact I strongly recommend coding and testing with a non-admin account. That way you see bugs related to security issues before you release.

 

[DaveSimmons]

VS 2013 runs just fine without admin rights. The only time I need to "Run as Administrator" is if I want to debug a program that itself requires admin rights.

Edit: this is for native C/C++ desktop applications.

 

[Sgraffite]

Where I work the projects won't load unless Visual Studio is run as administrator. I'm not sure why, they are all MVC and API projects.

 

[Cogman]

I used it in college as a non-admin, no problems.

The only way I could see it requiring admin access is if you needed to install updates or as KB said you needed to debug applications which required admin access. Beyond that, everything should be fine (so long as you have access to the files themselves).

 

[sao123]

ASP.net (WebForms + MVC) projects will not run without administrator rights because the IIS components needed to run them require admin rights.

 

[Apathetic]

If I remember correctly, you can't develop COM components without admin access (registering a COM component is a privileged action). Regular .NET stuff should be OK.

Dave

 

[sao123]

direct from MS, what you can do in VS without admin rights, and what requires them...

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj662724.aspx

You can do nearly everything in the Visual Studio IDE as a normal user, but, you need administrator permissions to complete the following tasks:

Developing solutions for SharePoint 2010.

Adding classic COM controls to the Toolbox.

Installing and using add-ins that were written by using classic COM in the IDE.

Using post-build events that register a component.

Including a registration step when you build C++ projects.

Debugging applications that run with elevated permissions.

Debugging applications that a run under a different user account, such as ASP.NET websites.

Debugging ASP.NET and AJAX Applications

Debugging in Zone for XAML Browser Applications (XBAP).

WPF Host (PresentationHost.exe)

Using the emulator to debug cloud service projects for Microsoft Azure.

Debugging a Cloud Service in Visual Studio

Configuring a firewall for remote debugging.

Set Up the Remote Tools on the Device

Performance tools

Profiling an application.

Deploying a web application to Internet Information Services (IIS) on a local computer.

Deploying an ASP.NET Web Application to a Hosting Provider using Visual Studio or Visual Web Developer: Deploying to IIS as a Test Environment

 

[Bulldog13]

direct from MS, what you can do in VS without admin rights, and what requires them...

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj662724.aspx

You can do nearly everything in the Visual Studio IDE as a normal user, but, you need administrator permissions to complete the following tasks:

Developing solutions for SharePoint 2010.

Adding classic COM controls to the Toolbox.

Installing and using add-ins that were written by using classic COM in the IDE.

Using post-build events that register a component.

Including a registration step when you build C++ projects.

Debugging applications that run with elevated permissions.

Debugging applications that a run under a different user account, such as ASP.NET websites.

Debugging ASP.NET and AJAX Applications

Debugging in Zone for XAML Browser Applications (XBAP).

WPF Host (PresentationHost.exe)

Using the emulator to debug cloud service projects for Microsoft Azure.

Debugging a Cloud Service in Visual Studio

Configuring a firewall for remote debugging.

Set Up the Remote Tools on the Device

Performance tools

Profiling an application.

Deploying a web application to Internet Information Services (IIS) on a local computer.

Deploying an ASP.NET Web Application to a Hosting Provider using Visual Studio or Visual Web Developer: Deploying to IIS as a Test Environment

Yeah, those bold ones make it a deal breaker.