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I've been running Steam on a non-admin account for awhile now. I can't recall a game that actually needed admin permissions to install and run. Some games will

I've been running Steam on a non-admin account for awhile now. I can't recall a game that actually needed admin permissions to install and run. Some games will continue to try on every run but after the no admin error it runs fine anyway. I'm on Windows 10. It's possible I've already installed the required Visual C++ runtimes.

gsich 7y ago
There is a steamservice.exe (or similar). It gets admin during install.
- ChrisSD 7y ago
  Right but as far as I'm aware this isn't needed for games to install and run. If you disable it, Steam complains but runs anyway. Of course it probably breaks some Steam services but apparently not ones I use.
  - gsich 7y ago
    Only if you install the games outside "Program Files".
    - shawnz 7y ago
      Not true. You can install games even with the service disabled, since the Steam program folder permissions allow any user to write files there (and that's where games are installed by default).
      - ChrisSD 7y ago
        Indeed. As I said, I've been doing this for awhile now so this isn't merely a theoretical for me.
      - gsich 7y ago
        Yes. But the service was enabled and set the permissions.
WorldMaker 7y ago
I turned Windows Ransomware Protection (aka Windows Controlled File Access) on for my Steam directory [0] as an immediate paranoia stopgap [1] while I debated moving it to its own non-admin account, but privilege escalations like these remind me that something like Controlled File Access may still need to be in place to prevent Steam being a malware/worm distribution vector simply by continuing to be a World-Writable Jungle of EXEs in 2019. I'm thinking the next step (for me at least) is not isolating Steam into its own non-admin account, but to its own entire VM. [0] Which has been a "fun" metagame since doing that. Game developers are horrible children at security permissions and the whack-a-mole necessary to allow access exceptions for games inside that space is quite incredible and sometimes disturbing. For instance, some games have six or seven EXEs for no clear, discernable reason. Some games love randomly copying EXEs to temp spaces before running them (often downloaders and launchers, but the fun ones are those with no clear downloader nor launcher but still running EXEs from %LocalAppData%\Temp). [1] Password cracking attempts on my Steam account got really disturbing/absurd. The weak link seems to be a Steam Web API that Steam claims has enough botnet protection, but Steam customer support of course tells me that the problem must be at my end due to malware. So of course, that lead me to "proving" that it can't be malware on my end in part by locking Steam down as much as possible.

gsich 7y ago

There is a steamservice.exe (or similar). It gets admin during install.

ChrisSD 7y ago
Right but as far as I'm aware this isn't needed for games to install and run. If you disable it, Steam complains but runs anyway. Of course it probably breaks some Steam services but apparently not ones I use.
- gsich 7y ago
  Only if you install the games outside "Program Files".
  - shawnz 7y ago
    Not true. You can install games even with the service disabled, since the Steam program folder permissions allow any user to write files there (and that's where games are installed by default).
    - ChrisSD 7y ago
      Indeed. As I said, I've been doing this for awhile now so this isn't merely a theoretical for me.
    - gsich 7y ago
      Yes. But the service was enabled and set the permissions.

WorldMaker 7y ago

I turned Windows Ransomware Protection (aka Windows Controlled File Access) on for my Steam directory [0] as an immediate paranoia stopgap [1] while I debated moving it to its own non-admin account, but privilege escalations like these remind me that something like Controlled File Access may still need to be in place to prevent Steam being a malware/worm distribution vector simply by continuing to be a World-Writable Jungle of EXEs in 2019. I'm thinking the next step (for me at least) is not isolating Steam into its own non-admin account, but to its own entire VM. [0] Which has been a "fun" metagame since doing that. Game developers are horrible children at security permissions and the whack-a-mole necessary to allow access exceptions for games inside that space is quite incredible and sometimes disturbing. For instance, some games have six or seven EXEs for no clear, discernable reason. Some games love randomly copying EXEs to temp spaces before running them (often downloaders and launchers, but the fun ones are those with no clear downloader nor launcher but still running EXEs from %LocalAppData%\Temp). [1] Password cracking attempts on my Steam account got really disturbing/absurd. The weak link seems to be a Steam Web API that Steam claims has enough botnet protection, but Steam customer support of course tells me that the problem must be at my end due to malware. So of course, that lead me to "proving" that it can't be malware on my end in part by locking Steam down as much as possible.