Zotero 7: Updating without admin privileges

This discussion was created from comments split from: Announcing the Zotero 7 Beta.
  • Hi, just wondering if Zotero 7 will change the auto updater at all? My organisation won’t enable admin privileges on my computer so I have to ask them to manually add every update to our software portal. They say because of the way zotero implements the updater they can’t do anything about it. Whereas Firefox updates no problem on my computer.
  • edited October 27, 2023
    @ben_a

    Actually if you ask your IT tech to uninstall Zotero, you could then install Zotero as a normal user, without admin privileges [when it the UAC prompt pops up, just click no/cancel, and then proceed with the installation]. Doing so, it will install Zotero in user space (%USERPROFILE%) then you won't need admin rights to update it
  • @ezellohar @ben_a

    It depends on how the computer is set up. Windows allows fine grained control, the admin can disable the execution of executables in the user directories, leaving you only with the software installed by your org. Firefox updates work without manual intervention, because Mozilla, after a long battle and lost market share to chrome, listened to the needs of the admins out there and is publishing a version that can be deployed automatically: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/enterprise/

    Zotero team is small, they don't offer an enterprise version. Your admin has to manually approve every update and use manual deploying to install it on the users machines.

    If you can't run executables locally, you can ask your admin or your IT department, if they can give you permission to install zotero beta or permission to run the version from the ZIP.
  • Thanks @ezellohar, for the correct method. This worked for me in my corp environment.

    Moving admin install to **non-admin / per user** Zotero installation.
    --------------
    1. Sync your Zotero data so you don't lose it.
    2. Uninstall Zotero (I removed all user customizations to make sure it was completely removed)
    3. Download and run the Zotero installer.
    4. When prompted yes/no by Windows UAC select "No"
    5. Finish running the installer. (If you select the "custom" option, you'll see that it's installing to your user's AppData folder instead of to "c:\Program Files")
    6. Use the app normally. Profit.
  • Hi, I am thinking about the same kind of problem. If we ron the non-admin version, would that work well with browser and Word plugins?
  • If you can install/run the program, everything will work (browser extension are already profile-specific)
  • I have the same problem as @peteel, I run Zotero with an installation in %userprofil%, but I can't connect my account.
    However, it's work with Firefox and Word extension.
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