They had to 'sell' you with email, for you to approve a tool for you to do your job better?
You misunderstand which side of that battle I was on (That's OK. I never made that clear.) I supported the HP hardware and software on behalf of engineering. The IT folks stepped in between us and manufacturing management with their 'preferred IT architecture'. Which back in those days was: get Windows on enough processors and your CIO gets a seat next to Bill Gates at his next dinner party. We (engineering) lost that battle.
Windows was (is) a crappy platform for anything you have to keep in configuration for cal/cert or other compliance issues. Every time it gets connected to the network, it starts slurping updates off some server in Redmond. And that's the low risk stuff. Most non-tech savvy people who get a prompt for some administrative function might as well have a button that says "Make the nasty popup go away and show me the nice video of kittens now".