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Jagex Launcher Admin bull?

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Dec 2022

Espionage724

Posts: 127 Iron Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

https://help.jagex.com/hc/en-gb/articles/12423096201873-Jagex-Accounts-FAQ

Q: Does the Jagex Launcher need Admin access?
A: Yes, requiring Admin access is the best practice for both device and client security.

Someone explain this to me in full detail as to how elevating permissions is ever an improvement for security or a best practice for a game launcher?

09-Oct-2023 15:13:45

Nov

2011

Applejuiceaj

Forum Moderator Posts: 44,941 Sapphire Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Espionage724 said :
Someone explain this to me in full detail as to how elevating permissions is ever an improvement for security or a best practice for a game launcher?

To my knowledge, its the installation process for the launcher that requires administrative rights rather than running the launcher itself - that sounds pretty standard on a variety of operating systems when it comes to installing new software. Whether it be on Windows (UAC prompts when installing most software), Linux (Sudo to install packages) or Mac (password prompted to install applications), they all require some user interaction to elevate privileges, and not everyone has rights to elevate.

The discrepancy seems to be because some clients previously allowed for installation without needing admin rights, likely because the application gets installed somewhere other than the standard location for programs that requires elevated rights to write to (e.g., a user's home directory). The Jagex Launcher doesn't, it installs to the computers applications directory (C:\Program Files or similar locations on the other platforms).

With that in mind, most of the complaints I've seen seem to be coming from those who played RuneScape on a work-managed device, and companies removing admin rights from employee devices is pretty standard practice these days too (and for good reason, less opportunity for an employee to install a malicious application that allows bad actors to infiltrate an organization). Personally I wouldn't be comfortable playing RuneScape on a device that was owned by someone else such as a work-managed device, but maybe that's just me.

At the end of the day, sounds like Jagex focused on following best practices for installing new software - which meant that they made it so that installs its files in a location that requires admin rights, just like almost everything else you put on your computer, and there are some not happy with that.

10-Oct-2023 02:08:47

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