Run as Administrator ???

I have a few programs that either will not perform at all, or perform very erratically and prone to crash, unless I run them by right-click > "Run as Administrator"

I have one photo organizing program which began giving me fits, randomly freezing-up when I would attempt to perform certain tasks - required tasks that I perform on every image file.
I about went over the hill talking to myself after fighting this program and it crashing about every third image.
I had uninstalled/re-installed so many times I lost count; tried a fresh downloaded file and still the problem would occur, sometimes on the very first image I tried.

I was about at my wit's end when the thought occurred to me, "Run as Administrator"
As such, I have just now finished tagging and geolocating some five- to six-hundred photos without a single crash.

If "Run as Administrator" is what it takes to successfully run this program, then that is the route I will go = it must work.


All that being said, in dumbed-down English, just what is different about "Run as Administrator" as compared to simply clicking the task-bar icon and opening a program that way ?

Considering the scenario I just described, I had tried everything humanly possible to get that program to function without crashing and was about to give it up; then, as if by some miracle, I "Run as Administrator" and it has been working flawlessly all through the night.

Thanks for reading and all help to my understanding this mystery is appreciated.

Run As Administrator changes the User Permissions. So, that could be a clue that the user permissions are not configured correctly for that application (photo program). -??

iko22 said:

Run As Administrator changes the User Permissions. So, that could be a clue that the user permissions are not configured correctly for that application (photo program). -??

And it is as simple as that, hmmmm....... Now it all begins to make sense to me.

If the program was correctly designed, then it would take care of these User Permissions of it's own accord when first installed, right ?

I would never have dreamed that insufficient permissions would crash a program, but by using "Run as Administrator", I turned a program that would not tag three images without crashing to being able to run through the night and tag several hundreds; nothing short of amazing.

Thanks so much for the explanation !

How old is the program?

Thinking a little more about this, I remember a time when Windows Update would suddenly make old programs run only when run as admin was selected. If run as admin was left blank, then the program would crash with an AppCrash error message. Sometimes, in some programs, nothing would happen (no launch, no error message).

That could be another explanation for your observation.

iko22 said:

How old is the program?

The program itself has been around a long time; the version I am currently using is the most recent consumer release, maybe a couple months old.

1. Considering that a Windows update could cause a program that was working fine to start giving fits, would I be correct to assume that installing a different program (or two or three) could break the permissions chain of a program that had been working fine ?

2, When I go into Advanced Sharing of a particular folder, I have to specify and verify a specific User to Add to the list that have permissions. - Considering that, can one specify a particular program to have permissions in the same way ?

3. Considering permissions, who is "Everyone" ? - I can give "Everyone" full permissions and complete control over a folder and still none of the Users have access until I specifically Add them to the list as well.

Sorry for so many questions; but, pondering on all this has caused an avalanche inside my empty head.

1. I have not seen any evidence to support that claim.

2. Yes, a program is just a file. You can add permissions to a file like a folder.

3. Everyone is Every user, including the Guest account. Best make sure that Standard Users have the correct permissions.

Hope that helps!

iko22 said:

Hope that helps!

Indeed it does; thanks.