Windows Client - Install / Uninstall

Prerequisites

Admin By Request, version 3.0 supports all current Windows versions, including:

  • Windows 11

  • Windows 10

  • Windows 7 and 8 (Pro and Enterprise only)

  • Windows Server (with Desktop Experience only)

If installing individually on client endpoints, you will need administrator privileges. on every workstation that executes the installation client.

If installing via Intune, you need to be able to create Intune packages.

You'll also need valid credentials to access your Admin By Request online portal at Admin By Request Portal.

Your Tenant License

The installer file downloaded from the portal is unique to your tenant. Depending on the target operating system, it can be an executable file, a package or a script and it is signed with a license that applies only  to installers downloaded from the tenant in which you are currently logged-in. The same license file is applied to each of the operating system client installers: Windows, macOS, Linux and Server.

This is true for free plans as well as paid plans.

When installed on an endpoint, once the endpoint connects successfully, you will see in real time the status of the endpoint in your Inventory, which is also unique to your tenant. You will not see other endpoints installed with files downloaded from other tenants - this is simply not possible.

Installing Admin By Request

There are three installation methods covered here:

NOTE:

These methods are not sequential - pick one or a combination of all three, depending on your requirements.

  1. The following installation procedure is in two parts: the first outlines downloading and installing the Admin By Request installation file, and the second part describes how to test that installation was successful.

    1. .

      1. Download the Windows client from
        https://account.adminbyrequest.com/ABRDownload
        and store the .msi file in a suitable location.

      2. Double-click the .msi file to start the installation and click Install when prompted:

        NOTE:

        You might be prompted for administrator credentials depending on the endpoint's UAC configuration.

        3. When the installation completes, the Admin By Request icon appears in the system tray in the bottom right corner of the screen. The icon is red if you are logged-on as an Administrator and green if you are logged-on as a Standard User. Refer to The Windows Client User Interface for a description of the differences.

      3. Click the icon to show details about the client or to start an Admin Session:

        Depending on installation preferences, an Admin By Request shortcut icon may also be placed on the desktop:

      Installation is now complete.

    2. Testing the installation involves a quick connection check:

      1. On an endpoint with Admin By Request installed, launch the application by selecting it from the system tray and clicking About Admin By Request:

      2. Select Connectivity and check that Operational Status and Cloud Connectivity are OK:

      You might also want to check the inventory in the portal, to review the details that are now being logged for this endpoint:

      1. From the portal top menu, select Inventory.

      2. Locate the endpoint and click either the computer name link or the Details link:

  2. To install unattended, use standard msiexec.exe switches (/I and /QN):

    Copy 
     msiexec.exe /I AdminByRequest.msi /QN
    NOTE:

    As part of the overall installation process, pick several endpoints at random and test that installation was successful (see Test the installation).

    1. Before adding the application to Intune, create a package in the .intunewin format using the Microsoft Win32 Content Prep Tool.

    2. Run the tool (IntuneWinAppUtil.exe) at a Windows command line, entering data as shown:

      This creates an Admin By Request package file that can be used by Intune.

    3. Go to Intune and open Apps > Windows and click Add:

    4. Select Windows app (Win32) and click Select.

    5. Choose the Admin By Request package file created in step 2 and click OK:

    6. In the (1) App information window, enter Publisher and App Version if not already given:

    7. In the (2) Program window, enter change the Uninstall command to:
      powershell.exe -command "Get-Package -Name 'Admin By Request Workstation' | Uninstall-Package -AllVersions -Force"

    8. In the (3) Requirements window:

      1. For Operating system architecture, select both 32-bit and 64-bit:

      2. For Minimum operating system, select Windows 10 1607:

    9. In the (4) Detection rules window, for Rules format, select Manually configure detection rules and click + Add::

    10. In the Detection rule window, change the Path to C:\Program Files (x86)\FastTrack Software\Admin By Request:

    11. Continue with the Intune package process, accepting the defaults for all remaining prompts/questions.

    NOTE:

    As part of the overall installation process, pick several endpoints at random and test that installation was successful (see Test the installation).

Upgrading Admin By Request

As the installer is a standard MSI file, upgrading is automatically detected.

If you deploy a newer version of the Admin By Request Windows client, msiexec.exe will automatically perform an uninstall of the old version and an install of the new version.

Deploying new releases

Admin By Request software updates are deployed by our Auto-Update process. However, when we release a new version we do not deploy it right away to all customers via auto-update. This is simply to mitigate any issues that arise after beta testing.

Our rule-of-thumb is to activate auto-update of new releases within 4 - 8 weeks of release, but this is subject to change, depending on feedback and any potential issues that might arise.

Uninstalling Admin By Request

There are several uninstallation methods described in this section, for both single endpoints (i.e. attended, one at a time) and multiple endpoints (unattended, scripted ).

NOTE:

These methods are not sequential - pick one or more, depending on requirements.

Single endpoint uninstall

  1. The first few steps in this procedure require access to the portal.

    1. In the Admin By Request portal, navigate to the Inventory page and identify the device on which to perform the uninstall.

    2. Locate the device in the inventory list - in the PIN column, click PIN for that device (columns can be switched around - the PIN column in your portal might not be the right-most column):

    3. Click tab UNINSTALL PIN and then click button Generate PIN:

    4. Back on the device on which you want to uninstall Admin By Request, select the Admin By Request icon from the system tray and click About Admin By Request.

    5. Select System, enter the Uninstall PIN generated above into the PIN Code field and click Uninstall:

  2. The client installer is a standard msi file. Simply right-click the msi file, select Uninstall and all components will be removed:

    1. Log in as an Administrator.

    2. Right-click the msi installation file and select Uninstall:

    NOTE:

    At the time of writing, the confirmation windows that pop-up refer to installing Admin By Request rather than uninstalling it. Provided Uninstall was selected at step 2, the program will indeed be uninstalled.

Multiple endpoints uninstall

Any one of the following commands when used in a script might work more reliably than the others, depending on device management software, endpoint configuration and other installed applications. Generally, the third method (using PowerShell) is the most reliable and should work if the others do not.

NOTE:

Code lines in the following procedures might wrap, especially if viewing in PDF format.

When copying, make sure there are no line breaks and replace place holders such as \\REMOTECOMPUTERNAME and \\path\to\ABR\MSI with the correct information for your environment.

  1. To remove unattended, use standard msiexec.exe switches (/X and /QN):

    Copy 
     msiexec.exe /X AdminByRequest.msi /QN

    • Uninstall via Path:

      Copy 
      psexec -s -e -h -u DOMAIN\user -p password \\REMOTECOMPUTERNAME msiexec /x "\\path\to\ABR\MSI\Admin By Request x.x.x (xxxxx) Workstation.msi (file://path/to/ABR/MSI/Admin%20By%20Request%20x.x.x%20(xxxxx)%20Workstation.msi)" /qn

    • Uninstall via MSI-code:

      Copy 
      psexec -s -e -h -u DOMAIN\user -p password \\REMOTECOMPUTERNAME msiexec /x {MSI-PRODUCT-CODE} /passive

    • Uninstall via Endpoint Name:

      Copy 
      psexec -s -e -h -u DOMAIN\user -p password \\REMOTECOMPUTERNAME wmic product where "name like 'admin by request%%'" call uninstall
  3. Copy 
    powershell.exe -command "Get-Package -Name 'Admin By Request Workstation' | Uninstall-Package -AllVersions -Force"
    NOTE:

    Microsoft has deprecated wmic, which is the PowerShell interface command to WMI. Although wmic still works, we recommend the above PowerShell command for uninstalling Admin By Request.

User rights after installation

When a user logs on, the account is downgraded from Admin to Standard User unless:

  • You have turned off Revoke Admins Rights in the portal settings (Settings Workstation Settings > Windows Settings > Lockdown > ADMIN RIGHTS).

  • Also under Revoke Admins Rights, the user is in the list of Excluded accounts.

  • The computer is domain-joined and the user is a domain administrator.

Tamper Prevention

When a user initiates an administrator session, the user’s role is not actually changed from user to admin. The user is granted all administrator rights, except the right to add, modify or delete user accounts. Therefore, there is no case where the user can create a new account or change their own role and become a permanent administrator.

The user also cannot uninstall Admin By Request, as the only program, to keep the administrator session open forever. Furthermore, all settings, configuration and program files are monitored during administrator sessions. If the user tries to remove or change any of the Admin By Request files, these are restored straight away and the attempted activity is logged.

Performance after Installation

When users are not using Admin By Request, it does not consume resources, except for a brief daily inventory and settings check.