What are administrative privileges needed for?

Administrative privileges are essential for accomplishing administrative tasks on an operating system. These tasks typically include configuring system settings, installing and managing software applications, maintaining security protocols, and performing system updates. With administrative privileges, a user has the authority to make changes that affect the entire system, which is critical for effective system management and maintenance.

While accessing user data and browsing network information may require different levels of permission, they do not fully encompass the broad range of capabilities that administrative privileges provide. Creating generic user accounts can often be done with standard user access in many systems, so it is not exclusively tied to administrative privileges. Therefore, the key purpose of administrative privileges lies in the ability to perform a variety of essential management tasks that ensure the smooth and secure operation of the operating system.