Windows OS: Administrator status vs regular user

Beginner question: what is really the purpose of running the terminal or programs as Administrator?

On my Windows laptop, I can use the terminal to switch from being a regular user to Administrator. I think that working as regular user (not Administrator) provides a layer of protections so dangerous changes are not made accidentally. What kind of dangerous changes?

In the case of multiple users using the same computer, each user has their own login (to enter the computer) and "home folder" inside the Users folder. Can all the users switch to administrator? Or only one of the users has that ability while the others cannot? In linux, there are is the superuser and the word SUDO is used...

Thank you

fog37 said:

Can all the users switch to administrator? Or only one of the users has that ability while the others cannot? In linux, there are is the superuser and the word SUDO is used...

On Linux, you have to be in the sudo group to be able to use the sudo command. Adding the User to the sudo Group

How to Change a User Account to Administrator on Windows 10 and 11

In any case, only an administrator can set another user as an administrator.

fog37 said:

What kind of dangerous changes?

Playing with security settings like the firewall for instance or accidentally deleting important files for the system stability.

Note that not all users are humans, some users are just programs, without a home directory. So if a program doesn't want other programs (or human users) playing with its files, it restricts their access to its user. Only a user with admin privileges could bypass the access restriction.

On Windows, I always try to use an account which is an Administrator. Not having Admin access means you probably cannot install a new printer or new software. Most people I know would like the ability to add peripherals such as a scanner or printer to their computer; thus, most users should be Administrators. I think Windows has enough protections even for dufus, unknowledgeable users, and the User accounts are mainly a nuisance. Just don't make any of them.

Furthermore, Windows *tries very hard* to make every account associated with a Microsoft user account. That is not necessary, and in fact, not good, because it allows Microsoft to track almost everything you do on your computer. Thus, I use non-Microsoft accounts (yes, you can create them,
although the user interface tries very hard to avoid letting you) that are Administrators.

Probably the main reason Microsoft invented User accounts is for places like libraries, and maybe banks, where the computer really needs to be an almost indestructable, locked-down terminal, and you then definitely DON'T want the users to be able to add drivers for printers and such.

harborsparrow said:

On Windows, I always try to use an account which is an Administrator. Not having Admin access means you probably cannot install a new printer or new software. Most people I know would like the ability to add peripherals such as a scanner or printer to their computer; thus, most users should be Administrators.

For home users, yes, this is probably true. The Linux equivalent is having most users be in the sudo group (or the wheel group, or whatever your particular Linux distro calls it--in Ubuntu it's wheel), so they can use sudo to accomplish administrator actions when they need to. The exception would be users that would rather not be bothered with admin stuff and just ask the admin in their house (which in my house is me ) to install something whenever it's needed.

harborsparrow said:

Probably the main reason Microsoft invented User accounts is for places like libraries, and maybe banks, where the computer really needs to be an almost indestructable, locked-down terminal, and you then definitely DON'T want the users to be able to add drivers for printers and such.

Not just those, but most corporate environments, where the corporation wants its IT department to be the only people with admin rights to the computers, and ordinary employees are locked down. That is probably the main reason Windows supports non-Administrator accounts, since corporations are really Microsoft's primary customers for Windows in terms of number of units purchased over time.

harborsparrow said:

On Windows, I always try to use an account which is an Administrator. Not having Admin access means you probably cannot install a new printer or new software. Most people I know would like the ability to add peripherals such as a scanner or printer to their computer; thus, most users should be Administrators.

I wouldn't want children or inexperienced family members to have administrator privileges. In fact, I would be very cautious about anything I did with administrator privileges. I doubt that a current Windows OS would prevent an Administrator from reformatting the system drive.
Although I was a fairly experienced programmer, I have made mistakes that could have been very serious. I was lucky not to have wiped the computer drive completely clean. These were on Unix machines. On Windows machines, I have written programs that destroyed my own files of months of work. THANK GOD FOR BACKUPS!

FactChecker said:

I would be very cautious about anything I did with administrator privileges.

Any administrator should be.