Administrative Rights to Your OSU Computer

Operating system software (like Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Mac OS X) require someone to act as the administrator of the computer, enabling their use in multi-user, networked environments. When you purchase a machine, you must choose an administrator.

VIS as administrator

When VIS is the administrator of your computer, you get:

• Managed upgrades and patches
• Managed software installation
• VIS support

With VIS as administrator, you will not have the ability to install software. VIS will gladly provide this service, usually within 24 hours.

You as administrator

When you are administrator, you:

• Can install your own software
• Assume responsibility for system upgrades and patches
• Understand that VIS cannot support your computer

If VIS is called upon to service a machine you administer, turn around time will be necessarily slow due to a lack of service history, unknown configuration, and so forth. In many cases the only option VIS will have is to reformat (i.e. delete everything from) your machine and start from scratch.