Install VI Package Manager with admin privilege by default

We need to find the root cause of the problem. Applications, in general, (and VIPM) do not need to be installed with admin privileges.

My thought on this is that VIPM is essentially an installer for VI packages.  It is possible that some package developers are putting files in Program Files or writing to the registry or something else that a normal installer would do and therefore requires administrative privileges.  Most other installers are always run as an administrator so that they can handle these types of things without issues.  So I would think that either 1) VIPM should be run as an admin when installing packages, 2) VIPM should handle privilege issues nicer so that it informs the user in the case that VIPM needs to be re-run as an admin, or 3) standards should be put in place such that packages should not do anything that requires admin privileges.  They all have their advantages/disadvantages but I dislike 3) the most because it limits the possibilities of what developers can do with VIPM.

I think the admin requirement should be set at the package level and then VIPM can honor that during package install. I don't think VIPM itself should be run with admin privileges. So the solution is probably none of the above. Most packages don't need to be installed with admin privileges but VIPM would ask the user for admin login when a specific package requires it. How's this sound?

i would find admin privileges at the package level useful.

i do not want vipm to run as admin. i would have to justify this to information security and that could give people reason to NOT use VIPM.

i have a use case for this. i am writing packages that edit registry settings to apply user preferences (e.g. windows settings, SVN preferences, etc). since VIPM is so easy to use, i would rather use it than a standard batch file because i can place multiple packages into a VIPC.

one thing to note is that a VI package is installed for all users. if you edit registry settings for the current user with a package, it will only be applied for that user even though the package will appear to have been installed for all users.