Windows 7: UAC Preventing user account from launching application

Hi,

We have an application which will not run when executed from a standard domain user account as the UAC window pops up and prompts for an administrator password.

I can get it running when I make the user a local admin but we would like to avoid handing over so much control just to get this program running. It works fine on Windows XP but on Windows 7 SP1 64 bit systems we hit this issue.

I've done a lot of research on this issue and have been lead to 3rd party UAC tools but they look too dubious to have running on our domain computers. I've also been digging around secpol.msc around the User Account Control settings but I don't think the settings in there are going to give me the solution I'm looking for.

Ideally I'd want a way to disable the UAC prompts for this application and allow it to run as it would on XP without requiring administrator credentials (XP compatibility mode doesn't override the UAC).

Is there any way to automatically elevate the application so that it runs under local admin without requiring the user to enter admin details?

If anyone has experienced issues around this I'd be interested to know how to resolve them.

See if this tutorial by Brink helps.
Elevated Program Shortcut - Create for Standard User

Thanks David, yes I've just tried the process outlined in the walk through but unfortunately the application still doesn't launch.

I've now dabbling in the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit to see if I can get anywhere that way.

Try turning UAC off entirely. If they are standard user accounts you do not need UAC for them. UAC is for allowing a standard user to elevate to administrative levels, but in practice this is not required for corporate setups but rather home use.

Turning it off all together would be the ideal. Are you referring to the slider where you can set it to 'never notify'? I've got this set as well but when I launch the program under the standard user account I get the message "Application form unknown publisher is going to make changes to your computer" and I am prompted to enter administrator credentials.

It's just so frustrating to find that an application that works fine on XP is unusable due to UAC and the way it's been designed doesn't offer any way around it. I know it's partly down to the application itself but I'd just like to think there is some kind of GPO setting or registry hacking that can be done to override UAC altogether or to enable this one application to run properly.

Remember that after disabling UAC you have to reboot for the change to take effect, otherwise you'll still be receiving prompts.

The program is obviously trying to do something it may not need, and (maybe needlessly) requesting admin rights. By default, in XP everyone is an admin unless explicitly set otherwise, and standard users don't get asked for credentials normally. Try contacting the developer and asking them about why it requires admin privileges. Like Windows itself, most UAC prompts are often due to poorly made software instead of a true requirement.