How to Run Your Favorite Programs at Work Without Admin Access

Many people have probably experienced this problem — you are at work and want to use your favorite programs, but you don't have the admin access that you need to install software.

There is a way to run software on Windows without needing to install anything. It's the perfect solution for restrictive work environments and public Internet cafes.

Running Linux Inside of Windows With QEMU

For Linux users who are stuck on Windows at work all day, it's easy to run a copy of Damn Small Linux in a window inside of Windows XP.

1. Go to the Damn Small Linux download page
2. Download the current version of dsl-embedded (the current version is Damn Small Linux 3.1 and the file is called dsl-3.1-embedded.zip)
3. Unzip the downloaded file
4. Double-click on the file called dsl-windows.bat

Damn Small Linux will then be running in a window on your Windows XP computer. It's really that easy. Check it out:

The window that Linux runs in is an emulator called QEMU. As soon as you click inside of the window, your mouse pointer will be locked inside of the QEMU window. To escape the pointer from the Linux desktop, press Ctrl-Alt. The mouse pointer will then shift back to the Windows XP desktop.

Freeing Computers With Portable Apps

Is your boss a "Microsoft-only" kind of guy? Do you want to run Firefox or edit photos, but can't install programs because the computers are locked down? Try portable apps. Portable apps don't install to the computer, so you can use them just about anywhere.

The easiest and fastest way to get portable apps running on your computer is to go to PortableApps.com and download the Portable Apps Suite which includes:

• Portable Firefox — Once you learn how to use Firefox you will never be able to go back to the dark ages of Internet Explorer.
• Portable OpenOffice — Create and edit office documents. Compatible with Microsoft Office, but free.
• Portable Gaim — Login to Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber, and IRC.
• and more...

Also check out GIMP Portable, a free image editing program. It has many of the features of Adobe Photoshop. The list of available portable apps is constantly growing.

You can even carry your portable apps around with you on a thumb drive, but if you plug your thumb drive into many computers you may end up with malware on your thumb drive. I prefer to download portable apps to the desktop and run them from there.

If you have downloaded the Portable Apps Suite, you will see a program launcher like the one shown below:

Here is a screenshot of using GIMP Portable to edit a digital photo. The program is not installed on the computer, but is running directly from the folder where it was downloaded. GIMP Portable is a great solution for editing digital photos on public computers, or any Windows computer that doesn't already have image editing software installed.

Portable Web Development Tools

If you want to do some web development on a computer where you don't have admin access, there are a few tools available:

• XAMPP — Lets you run Apache, MySQL, PHP, PEAR, MiniPerl, phpMyAdmin, SQLite, and more... all from a thumb drive.
• Portable Python — an article about running SPE on a thumb drive, as well as Moveable Python ("Python on a stick").
• Instant Rails — Get Ruby on Rails running on a Windows machine without needing to install anything.
• Portable Filezilla — Free FTP program.
• Portable NVU — Free WYSIWYG editor.
• SciTE — A great text editor to replace Microsoft Notepad. Doesn't need admin access to run. Has code syntax highlighting, and many great features.

Summary

If you are stuck on a Windows computer and don't have admin access to install programs, try Damn Small Linux and/or portable applications. They are great tools for the toolkit.