One Way To Close Your Security Gap: Stop Running As Admin On Windows Daily.
Forrester, Thursday, January 15th, 2026
My computing career goes back to when Windows 3.1/3.11 was the dominant desktop OS and slowly being replaced by just-launched Windows 95. Novell NetWare was at its peak for file and print services and slowly losing market share to Windows NT.
The enterprise was in a bit of a free-for-all when it came to security as the internet was certainly not as ubiquitous, so firewalls weren't as common. Authentication could be touchy depending on what backend you were connecting to (NetWare, NT, Banyan VINES, or others), and in many environments, you had multiple logins.
Endpoint security, or just 'antivirus,' as it was referred to then, was gaining traction from vendors like ESET, McAfee, Norton, and Trend Micro but was far from widely adopted. And as much as admins may have tried to lock down desktops, if you were using the common OSes (DOS, Windows-on-DOS, OS/2, or even Mac), getting around restrictions such as hidden directories, kiosk menus, or even CMOS passwords meant having a floppy disk and a little knowledge.