Vista - Installation problem - non-admin users

Hello,

I guess I am facing an administrative privileges issue with Vista. I have a
custom application which is sent out to the users as an .msi file. I am not
able to install this .msi file on Vista for non – admin users.

I get the following error
Error 1303. The installer has insufficient privileges to access this
directory: <Folder Path>. The installation cannot continue.
Log on as an administrator or contact your system administrator.

Also the setup tries to add some dlls in system32 folder, and another follow
on error that I get is:
Error 1304: "Error writing to file [file name] verify that you have access
to that directory"

When I right click on the setup.msi, there is no option of “Run as
administrator�.

Any ideas on whatz going on? How do we let a non-admin user install the
setup on Windows Vista?

Gaurav wrote:Yes, Vista is a different bird.
Yes, Vista is a different bird.
C:\Windows and C:\ Program Files have more protection than any previous
versions of the NT based O/S(s). It's protection by obscurity.
<http://juice.altiris.com/download/1382/msi-run-as-administrator-context-menu-for-vista>

But of course, one has to be user/admin to do it.
Where you able to do it on XP or any of the previous versions of the
NT-based O/S? I have always been admin on the machine or I was a Domain
Administrator when I walked up to a machine and was doing something on a
user's machine, so I always had the power.

There is the Power-user group that you could put the user into that
group, which could let the user perform the task of installation as
non-administrator. The Power-user is there for backwards compatibility.

But at some point in the installation, the non-admin user is going to be
stopped at doing anything in System32 for the following reasons:

1) The user is going to be asked to give a user-id and psw to an
user/admin account.

2) The user account for the non-user admin in not an account that has
full rights on System32.

3) You as user/admin on Vista you are not a user with full rights on
Vista like you are on XP.

If you were to go to C:\Windows or C:\Program Files or some folder
within those folders like System32, then you will see that you cannot
add an user account, delete an user account or even change the
permissions of an exiting account and it is static, even for user/admin.

Vista does have the hidden built-in Administrator account that does have
full rights at all times, like the one on XP. The user/admin account
that Vista gives one or any user/admin account that you may create will
not be an user/admin with full rights, even if you disable UAC, because
those user/admin accounts do not inherit full admin rights from the
built-in Administrator account like on XP.

However the Administrator faces the same situation of doing anything
with a user account. The only thing it can do is go to the Advanced
button as it is enabled, as opposed to your user/admin account as the
Advanced button may be disabled.

Here is a *test* I want you to do. You'll find it at "cannot change
Program Files to full control" thread in this NG, do the *test*.

You may want to read the information in the links for UAC, because of
the two tokens assigned to user/admin with UAC enabled. So you're really
only a Standard user on Vista even as user/admin, which is the default.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../cc709691.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/m.../cc138019.aspx