Permissions Nightmare

Greetings - I jumped from XP to W7 and am having real problems getting my system setup because I keep running into permissions problems when trying to install programs.

Latest example: I downloaded RIA Services 1.0 to use with VS 2010 and Silverlight and, despite the fact that I am the only user on the machine, and should therefore be an Administrator and have set "User Control : Behaviour of the Elevation Prompt for Administrators in Admin Approval Mode" to "Elevate Without Prompting" any attempt to install RiaServices.msi is met with a prompt the I need to obtain permission form an Administrator to install the program.

I have also Disabled "User Account Control: Detect Installations and prompt for Elevation" with no apparent effect.

I have also downloaded and installed the 'Take Ownership' Registry patch and used that to no effect.

I would greatly appreciate some help with this, beyond being referred to the overwhelming abundance of tutorials - the truth is I just have not go the cycles to absorb all of that info at the moment - I just need to get this thing installed and running....

Thanks for both of those -

On the first one - on my system the context (right-click) menu doesn't show "run as" or "Install as" options, there is only "install"

I also tried compaitbility mode "Run this program in compatibility mode for : Previous Version of Windows" (the only option available).. same result - it tells me I must be administrator

Sorry, back to the drawing board....

thanks - for now I hit the 'aw heck' switch and turned UAC off. With a restart that allowed me to run this particular msi.

Having said that I would like to have UAC back on at some point, so if we can walk through this I would be grateful... here is all the info I have at this point - I have only had the machine for a couple of weeks and have not fiddled much beyond app-based settings.


Windows 7 Pro 64 Bit (OEM From Dell). It is on a two-station Workgroup. In relation to Perms/Ownership I have taken the following steps:

1. Manually "took ownership" of the parent folder and the .msi file itself. That didnt work so

2. downloaded and installed the Microsoft "TakeOwnership" patch (provides 'take ownership' option in r-click menu). Executed on same two objects. No luck so,

3. In local security policy, local policy, security options, user Acclount Control Settings are as shown on the attached screenshot (let me know if it didnt upload).

4. tried your suggestions (thanks)

5. as mentioned turned UAC Off (slider to the bottom) and rebooted

Hope that helps you help me ;-)

PS - the Administrator account itself is disabled - I may have turned that off when it first arrived, not sure.

PS - two items

just noticed the 'my specs' button on the forums page - here is the output from that:
OS Windows 7 Enterprise (x64)
Memory 8GB
Monitor(s) Displays 2 Dell 19" LCD
Screen Resolution 1280x1024

Keyboard Dell
Mouse Dell Optical
Internet Speed 40meg







2. I also just noticed your question as to whether I was not the Sys Admin - I am the only user on the system so I made the ASSumption that I would be in the Administrators Group but maybe not ....