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Question
Friday, May 13, 2016 2:27 PM
I have a program that I do NOT want to be running as Administrator, but I cannot seem to figure out how to force it to run as a regular user (my account). Everything that I have tried thus far doesn't work, it wants administrative access. I don't care if it runs properly or not when run as a user, I just want it to stop running as admin. What do I need to do to make this happen?
All replies (6)
Friday, May 13, 2016 4:06 PM âś…Answered
In that case I think using the SDK mt tool on it is the only option. Take a backup copy of the exe, then try this:
http://www.helyar.net/2014/remove-uac-from-a-specific-application/
The mt tool is part of the Windows Standalone SDK for Windows 10, see download link on this page:
That was a nice little trick. Unfortunately, however, it didn't work. But, I did find something else on the web to force it to run as the current user. I created the following CMD script, and it works.
set __COMPAT_LAYER=RUNASINVOKER
CD "C:\Program Files (x86)\NCWest\NCLauncher"
"C:\Program Files (x86)\NCWest\NCLauncher\NCLauncher.exe" /LauncherID:"NCWest" /CompanyID:"12" /GameID:"AION" /LUpdateAddr:"updater.nclauncher.ncsoft.com"
I already had the Windows 10 Platform SDK on my machine with Visual Studio as well. The only Windows programming that I have done has been in the context of Visual Studio, which I don't do very much. My real expertise is in Unix systems.
Friday, May 13, 2016 3:06 PM
It depends on the program you are trying to run, Generally there is no way to make a program run as a standard user when it requires admin access to make changes to the computer.
You can sometimes get away with installing the program to %appdata% if it is simply trying to write to a configuration file in the same directory.
What does the program do?
Friday, May 13, 2016 3:14 PM
It's possible to include a manifest in a program that specifies that it needs admin rights to run. Such programs automatically get the shield on the icon, and automatically trigger a UAC prompt when run (unless UAC is turned off).
There isn't really any way around that short of asking the developer to supply a version of the program that doesn't do that, or taking matters into your own hands with the mt tool in the Windows SDK. If the program is signed, changing the manifest will invalidate the signature.
(It's also possible for a program to decide that it needs elevation and relaunch itself with the option to require admin rights. But, in such cases, because there isn't a manifest saying that it always needs admin rights, you don't normally see the shield on the icon.)
Friday, May 13, 2016 3:17 PM
It's a game. AION by NCSoft specifically.
In my opinion, there is no reason why a game should require admin access to a machine. Now there has to be a way to force it to run as a user. The "Sorry, it cannot be done" is not acceptable. I have already set the folder permissions so that the game can write to its own folder, so that is not the issue.
Friday, May 13, 2016 3:27 PM
In that case I think using the SDK mt tool on it is the only option. Take a backup copy of the exe, then try this:
http://www.helyar.net/2014/remove-uac-from-a-specific-application/
The mt tool is part of the Windows Standalone SDK for Windows 10, see download link on this page:
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads
Monday, May 16, 2016 7:16 AM
Glad to hear this case has been solved, thanks for sharing. We appreciate your time and efforts. Hope this experience will help other community members who have the same requirement.
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