⚙️Install anything without Admin rights

In Enterprise working environment, you are most probably not granted administrator previleges, however to boost your productivty, you might need install some software toolkits that you are most familiar with. This blog covers the most widely used toolkits and how to install them without admin rights.

• Install nodejs without admin
• Install yarn without admin
• Install Choco without admin
• Install Powershell portable
• Install Dotnet SDK or runtime without admin
• Install Everything Search without admin

Install nodejs without admin

1. Go to https://nodejs.org/en/download/
2. Download Windows Binary (.zip)

3. Unzip and extract to a folder
   

   C:\your\nodejs_path\here\
   node -v
   npm -v
   

4. Add the extracted path to Windows Path, run the following command from the command line or from PowerShell:
   

    set PATH=%PATH%;C:\your\nodejs_path\here\

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Install yarn without admin

Run the following command from the command line or from PowerShell:

    npm config set strict-ssl false  #important
    npm install yarn -g

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Install Choco without admin

Follow this link to setup Choco without admin rights.

If you even do not have the rights to run Powershell, follow below procedures:

1. Get a PC where you have the admin previlege
2. Install Choco
3. Find the installation folder where Choco is installed, usually this is C:\ProgramData\chocolatey
4. Zip all files in this folder, and share the zip files with whatever approaches: email, dropbox, AWS S3, FTP, USB sticks etc.
5. Unzip the file and add the path to the environement variable path

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Install Powershell, Cmder portable

Once choco is install, we can install many software toolkits which are portable and could be installed without admin, refer to this site to get the list of portable software.

For instance, to install powershell (Portable), run the following command from the command line or from PowerShell:

  choco install powershell.portable

  # Below will install 7zip, Cmder and git in one go!
  choco install battecode.cmder.dev 

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Install Dotnet SDK or runtime without admin

1. Go to Microsoft Dotnet download link, e.g. Dotnet 5 Dowload Page
2. Download the binary file(not msi installer)
3. Unzip the file and update the folder path in the Windows Environement

    set DOTNET_ROOT=%USERPROFILE%\dotnet
    set PATH=%USERPROFILE%\dotnet;%PATH%
    set DOTNET_MULTILEVEL_LOOKUP=0

An alternative approach:

• Download the stable version of the scripts

  Bash (Linux/macOS): https://dot.net/v1/dotnet-install.sh
  PowerShell (Windows): https://dot.net/v1/dotnet-install.ps1

• Run the below script to install the .NET SDK and the shared runtime.
  

    .\dotnet-install.ps1 

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Install Everything Search without admin

1. Download the zip file here, note to download the portable version
2. Unzip and run 'Everything.exe'
3. Since we don't have the admin rights, we cannot run this as service, so the alternative approach is to index folders. This way, add the root of all your drive to be searched, and you will get the same effects as indexing all local dirves!

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Install Anything Else without admin

• Go to a PC where you have admin
• Find the path where executable file is located
• Zip the file and copy the zip file to the computer where no admin rights are grante
• Unzip the files to the target computer
• It should run in most cases. Something I tried out:
  • Fast Stone Capture
  • Paint.net
  • VLC
  • Sidekick browser
  • Notion
  • Slack
  • Evernote
  • GitKraken
  • Notepad ++
  • Sublime
  • vscode

See also:

• https://community.chocolatey.org/packages/everything.portable
• https://portableapps.com/
• https://windowsreport.com/install-software-no-admin-rights/

Comments

[Sam Taylor]

Thank you so much! I didn't realize you could just drag the .NET runtime binaries into a folder and it'll recognize the host. Saved me a lot of hassle :)

[mldreamteam]

Sorry but could you elaborate on what you meant by this?