Windows installer: Per user install (feature request)

[doodadjs]

• Version: 8.1.2
• Platform: Windows (all versions)
• Subsystem: N/A

Can you change Node's Windows installer so that Admin privileges are no longer required to install ? Instead, you can make a per user install, or better, offer the choice between a system and user installation. Thanks.

[joaocgreis]

I agree this would be an interesting feature, but it is not so straightforward as there are a lot of edge-cases to consider. A PR would be welcome, but would have to be very well tested before it could land.

On the other hand, the need for this is quite low because there are the zip/7z packages. You can just extract the package and add it to the user path. You don't get ETW, performance counters or start menu entries with this (can always add manually), but everything else should work exactly the same. There is also NVS (https://github.com/jasongin/nvs) that can be quite helpful.

[doodadjs]

That could fix issues like #4603.

[Trott]

@nodejs/build @nodejs/platform-windows Is this something that is likely to be implemented? It seems like @joaocgreis is suggesting it is unlikely? If so, we should probably close this.

[tniessen]

I think this would have to be implemented with #4603 resolved to avoid complications.

[jasnell]

Closing as there's been no further activity on this. Can reopen if someone determines that it needs to be picked back up.