Over the weekend I had to test a couple of products so I can recommend a solution to a real problem for one of my clients. One of my clients that runs a chain of farm implement dealerships (the green kind.)

The major problem my client is having is that one of their programs requires local administrative privileges. I think probably because it does direct hardware calls. Some of the users have laptops they have to take out into the field to hook up to farm machinery to perform diagnostics. This has presented a problem.

Users being doing what users do, will hook up anything, install anything and do anything to their computers if you let them. Most end users don’t understand the problems of installing unauthorized programs and devices into production equipment.

Enter two possible solutions each with their own pluses and minus. My client actually ran these down and asked me to look them over.

Viewfinity is a cloud and agent based privilege elevation program. It features a drop dead simple web based interface. Viewfinity doesn’t require active directory and changes you make with an easy to configure policies are applied near instantly. You can also prohibit execution and unwanted applications. The downside is that it requires an agent installed on each controlled computer. Deployment can be done a couple of ways, by e-mail or pushed out through Active Directory if connected to the main network. I think it’s a great management application particularly for mobile computers because as long as the laptop is Internet connected, policy is near immediately applied. Estimated street price for this product is $20 to $28 per year per managed host. It’s pretty well priced considering the cost of unmanaged devices and the simplicity of application.

Scriptlogic has a new free product called Privilege Authority. It requires no installations, but requires Active Directory connectivity to apply policy so you’re at the mercy of the replication gods and propogation. Privilege Authority handles privilege elevation only, but heck, it’s free. The product is a version 1.0 . I’ll add to my review later.