Managing installation of applications on a computer device

#This application is a U.S. Utility from G.B. Application No. 1714048.4, filed Sep. 1, 2017, the disclosures of each of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

#The present invention relates generally to the field of computers and computer devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to a computer device and to a method of managing installation of applications on a computer device.

#It is desirable to implement a least-privilege access security model, whereby each user is granted only a minimal set of access privileges by way of their standard user account. This model is useful, for example, to reduce the risk of attacks from malicious software (malware).

#For a better understanding of the invention, and to show how example embodiments may be carried into effect, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings in which:

#FIG. 1 is a schematic overview of an example computer device as part of a computer network;

#FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the example computer device in operation;

#The following description illustrates example embodiments of a mechanism for managing installation of an application on a computer device. The example mechanism is simple and convenient for a user, and is relatively lightweight to implement. Further, the example mechanism will uphold security of computer devices while enabling applications to be installed by users themselves and with minimal support or supervision. Many other advantages and improvements will be appreciated from the discussion herein.

#The example embodiments are discussed in detail in relation to computer devices using UNIX or Unix-like operating systems, including particularly the ‘macOS’ family of operating systems (known previously as ‘OS X’ and before that ‘Mac OS X’) provided by Apple, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., USA. As will be familiar to those skilled in the art, Unix-like operating systems include those meeting the Single UNIX Specification (‘SUS’), along with similar systems such as implementations of Linux, BSD and several others. Hence, the teachings, principles and techniques as discussed below are also applicable in other specific example embodiments. In particular, the described examples are useful in many computer devices having a security model which employs discretionary access control.

#FIG. 1 is a schematic overview of a set of computer devices as part of a computer network. In this simplified example, a computer device 200 is coupled by a network 10 to a set of servers 20. For example, the network 10 can be a private network, a virtual private network, an intranet, a cloud, or the Internet. In practice, computing environments for large-scale corporations will typically include many thousands of individual end-user computer devices 200 coupled to many tens or many hundreds of servers 20.