CompTIA A+® Certification All-In-One For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

1.7. Permissions to Install Drivers

To install drivers on a Windows computer, by default, you need to be a member of the Administrators group. In most cases, you do not want just anybody adding hardware devices to a computer and causing no end of problems for the people responsible for maintaining the computer. This ability to install the software for the device is controlled in the same way all rights on the computer are controlled, through the Security Policy. The computer policy can be changed locally. However, if the computer is part of Active Directory (AD), conflicting AD settings would override the local Security Policy. To view the active security settings on your computer and to see whether they are being overridden, you only have to look as far as the Administrative Tools folder, located in the Control Panel on your computer.

In Administrative Tools, you will find the Local Security Policy application, which lets you see all security settings on your computer. To see the right to load and unload device drivers, expand the tree on the left to see Local PoliciesUser Rights Assignments. After selecting User Rights Assignments, you can browse the list on the right for Load and Unload Device Drivers. The Security Setting column tells you who has the permission, as shown in Figure 1-9. To change the permission, double-click the security setting, and use the Load and Unload Device ...