Adobe, Apple iTunes, Java, etc.. updates as standard user

[BOB IROC]

Ok I am basically sick of my family with their own computers doing stupid stuff to get infected with malware. Is there a good way to allow updates for the typical programs that autoupdate like Adobe Reader and Flash, Java, Quicktime/iTunes under a standard user account.

I thought maybe looking for their update tasks in Task Scheduler and setting them to run under SYSTEM but not all seem to have these.

I have been looking on the net and most sites say no it cannot be done and to use some 3rd party program to manage them. That is all fine and dandy and I do that on my network at work using a System Management Suite but not for individual computers that I may not touch for months until they do something stupid and give it to me to fix.

All computers running Windows 7

[Zonie]

How about just turning the auto update off on the apps then update on your next visit?

[Ferrit]

Do like I did with my family.
After several stupid infections I just started charging them appropriately.
They learned very quickly, the relationship between stupidity and finances.

[Niclo Iste]

Alternatively just wipe the drive and do a basic reinstall of the OS. Say the infection lost all the pictures, music, games, etc. That also teaches them to quit doing silly things.

The other thought is an in depth class on how to avoid infections and a thorough teaching of how to run cleanup utilities on a routine basis can help too, provided you have the time to teach and documentation to leave with them.

I've successfully incorporated both concepts with outstanding results.

[slgrieb]

Bob IROC, I don't think there's any way to do precisely what you want. There are still plenty of reasons why standard user accounts are a real PITA to administer. Anyway, any updater that completely bypassed all the limits on standard accounts would probably just be God's gift to malware authors.

I'm not sure, but you might be better off looking at ways to lock down user changes to the system in somewhat the same way Steady State does with pre-Win7 versions of Windows. MS claims you can do this in Win7 with free tools and group policy settings, but I haven't tried it yet. They have a 30(?) page guide available here.