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Permissions

No special permissions are required to install or operate NVM for Windows. Users may want to leverage special permissions in select circumstances though.

Community Installer: Registered Event Source​

The community installer attempts to register NVM for Windows as an application event source. This allows Windows Event Viewer to display "NVM for Windows" instead of "Unknown" for native logs it writes. This can be helpful for sorting and filtering logs in Windows Event Viewer.

Windows requires administrative privileges to register an event source. The installer attempts to elevate privileges, triggering a UAC prompt. If the user account lacks these permissions (or refuses them), the event source will not be registered. Logs are still written to and readable from Windows Event Viewer with the aforementioned caveat.

Most commnunity users have administrative rights on their own computer. For those who don't, such as users working on company computers or in highly regulated industries, consider using Certified Builds, which are not subject to this restriction.

Link mode uses an NTFS junction to select the Node.js version.

  • NTFS junctions do not need a special privilege.
  • NTFS junctions do not support UNC paths such as a network share or a mapped drive.

If Node.js storage uses a UNC path, NVM for Windows creates a symbolic link. Windows requires the SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege privilege to create that symbolic link.

Enable SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege
  • A user with administrative rights has this privilege.
  • Windows gives this privilege when you enable Windows Developer Mode.
  • You can also grant this privilege with Group Policy:
    Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > User Rights Assignment > Create symbolic links.
No Elevation

Starting in v2, NVM for Windows will not attempt to elevate permissions on failure of symlink creation (i.e. no UAC prompt). If permissions block the creation of a link, the user is notified (desktop notification) with guidance.

By default, NVM for Windows is configured to operate in the new "shim" mode.

Policy Management​

In secure/regulated environments, it may be desirable to enforce policies around specific features. This may include restricting which Node.js versions can be installed, what node.exe is allowed to access, how npm/pnpm/yarn manage module installation, which global modules can be installed, and more.

These are all configuration controls, not operating system permissions. Policy enforcement is available in certified governance builds.