I come from the same boat as deuce...Managed Desktops are great. I can also understand where the admin in question is coming from with something funny he doesn't understand being used on his desktop. Just more of a headache to fix in the end.

The only real help I can give is to try and educate the admin and maybe, just maybe, he can turn the company stance. Phil from Leaf R&D uses LS to manage his users desktops and I have never heard him complain. One theme...one layout...total control.