Administrative rights on a computer allow you to install software and make other changes. This is helpful when setting up a new computer or installing software for a new project. However, when you are logged in as an administrator on a computer it also allows malware to install and could not install if the account was not set as an administrator. For this reason, by default UW computers are not set up to have customers as administrators. This not only protects the computer, but also the customer's account from being hacked through the computer.
Temporary administrative rights can be requested by contacting the Help Desk. These rights will only last a short time (up to 90 minutes) until the administrative access will be removed automatically. The temporary rights can be granted in just a few minutes and can be requested as many times as needed. The easiest ways to get these rights on your computer is to start a chat session at
support.uwyo.edu since that remote session will be needed to give administrative access. You can also call the Help Desk at 766-4357, option 1, or email userhelp@uwyo.edu.