Windows 7 WTF? Can't install fonts without admin priviledges??

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6 comments, last by swiftcoder 13 years, 3 months ago
On Windows 7, how the HECK do you allow users to install new fonts? This is absolutely insane - it's like there's no way to grant this one single permission...

there are several artists who simply cannot install fonts and there's no IT department here, so I'm left floundering trying to help figure this out.
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Comic Sans should be enough for everyone.
If there's no IT department, then who has admin privileges? That is all that's required to install the font.

In time the project grows, the ignorance of its devs it shows, with many a convoluted function, it plunges into deep compunction, the price of failure is high, Washu's mirth is nigh.

Quote:Original post by Antheus
Comic Sans should be enough for everyone.


Lol so true...
Quote:Original post by Washu
If there's no IT department, then who has admin privileges? That is all that's required to install the font.


we have "a guy" who has Admin Privileges, and the guy is out on extended vacation. it's absolutely retarded.

but not nearly as retarded as making FONTS a guarded action! absolutely ridiculous!
Quote:Original post by Grimunlock
Quote:Original post by Washu
If there's no IT department, then who has admin privileges? That is all that's required to install the font.


we have "a guy" who has Admin Privileges, and the guy is out on extended vacation. it's absolutely retarded.

but not nearly as retarded as making FONTS a guarded action! absolutely ridiculous!


Yes, because opening up a directory that contains the fonts that all the applications use, even those that run with system level privilages, to modification by any idiot or dangerous program sounds like such a BRILLIANT idea.

In time the project grows, the ignorance of its devs it shows, with many a convoluted function, it plunges into deep compunction, the price of failure is high, Washu's mirth is nigh.

Quote:Original post by Grimunlock
Quote:Original post by Washu
If there's no IT department, then who has admin privileges? That is all that's required to install the font.


we have "a guy" who has Admin Privileges, and the guy is out on extended vacation. it's absolutely retarded.

but not nearly as retarded as making FONTS a guarded action! absolutely ridiculous!

Going out on a limb, it sounds like both of them were wise choices.

Restricting the system's core fonts folder was, is, and likely will remain to be a very wise choice. If it blocks you, you can load your specific font in your application without forcing it to be in the system's fonts folder.

Restricting administrative privileges to the IT department --- and to those who have proven their ability to behave properly --- is also a wise action.


On the other hand, having only one person with permissions was a very bad idea. I mean he could die or become seriously injured, which is a security risk. Better to have multiple people with permission, along with written copies of admin passwords and redundant physical copies of system admin password recovery files to enable non-password administrator login during a serious emergency.

As a sad but true example: About 15 years ago, the leads for IT for a particular company I know all flew in to town. This particular group of people were the only ones who had full admin access to the domains. They were also responsible for other major IT tasks like off-site backups and working with the various ISPs. Their brains had all the mandatory passwords and account informations for the business. They decided to go to lunch together. They piled into a minivan to drive to the restaurant. During the trip the car collided with another. Everyone in the van died. Fortunately they were smart enough to have done the things listed above, including keeping critical passwords written down, and the company was able to continue without losing any data or machines to the tragedy.
Quote:Original post by Grimunlock
On Windows 7, how the HECK do you allow users to install new fonts? This is absolutely insane - it's like there's no way to grant this one single permission...
Do you know what happens when you install too many fonts under Windows 7? Let me tell you, it isn't pretty.

A few months ago, a mate of mine downloaded one of those torrents containing 70,000 fonts, and proceeded to install the whole lot on his Windows 7 machine. He called me after he had spent a day trying to scrub out fonts while booted from a rescue disk. I then spent close to 6 hours removing all the fonts and rebuilding font caches, only to discover that even after you remove all the fonts, Windows will never function again... We ended up formatting the drive and reinstalling Windows.

There was a plus side, of course: I was able to laugh at yet another person who has hosed their machine through warez - karma's a bitch [wink]

Tristam MacDonald. Ex-BigTech Software Engineer. Future farmer. [https://trist.am]

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