Version managers are easy to forget about. They do their job and get out of the way. These tools often depend on shadow operations to provide the productivity features developers rely on. NVM for Windows v2 is built differently. This article explains how NVM for Windows v2 addresses developer needs and the needs of the organizations that support them.
Most version managers do not work with IT. They work around it. They drop executables wherever they want, keep settings in plain text, and bypass the controls Windows provides. That is shadow IT with a developer-friendly name. If your Node.js setup would not survive a software inventory review, it is probably working around IT. NVM for Windows v2 goes to great lengths to operate in controlled environments without stripping developers of the workflows they want. The article is about why I rewrote it that way, including the architecture it took and why the project now ships two builds. If IT inventoried every Node.js/npm installation in your organization, could you point to a record of which ones were intentional?