prohibit new software installs, but allow upgrades & patches

I'm planning on purchasing several laptops for our firm with Vista Business
installed. There is no network and all laptops will work in stand-alone
mode. Is there a way I can use the built in Administrator account to
prohibit the users from installing any new software while at the same time
allowing upgrades and/or patches to software that is already installed?
Thanks for any thoughts, input, etc.

Sorry, no. Certain upgrades (such as Windows Updates) can be allowed but
there is no way to configure Windows in the way you wish to. If a user can
install an "update" (such as a newer version of Flash Player) then the same
user can install any other software, "upgrade" or "update" or not.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User]
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"Don" <> wrote in message
news:BF87F3A8-24B4-4B71-8C65-...
> I'm planning on purchasing several laptops for our firm with Vista
> Business
> installed. There is no network and all laptops will work in stand-alone
> mode. Is there a way I can use the built in Administrator account to
> prohibit the users from installing any new software while at the same time
> allowing upgrades and/or patches to software that is already installed?
> Thanks for any thoughts, input, etc.