Hall Of Shame

This wiki page is dedicated to the thousands of applications that break when run as non-admin.

I've moved the HallOfShame here so that people can add their own anecdotes. Please just follow the convention of using the HOS suffix for each HOS wikiword. Thanks!

Please do take the time to notify the company of the problem. You can make a difference.

Product Name	Brief Description of Problem	Contributor
Costco Photocenter	ActiveX Upload tool will not load or even try to load	RG
AcerTravelMateHOS	Computer tools and patches broken	Mark Kordelski
Atril déjà vu X	Fails to run	Gavin Greig
AutoCAD2004HOS	Application hangs	Stephen Woolhead
AutoWork (MAM software)	Requires admin rights on XP and UAC disabled on Vista.	Adam Vero
Avaya IVR Designer	Requires admin rights (or ACL changes) on both directories and registry keys	Joe Philipps
Axosoft OnTime 2004 Windows Edition	Fails to run	Gavin Greig
Axosoft OnTime 2005 Windows Edition	Fails to run (corrected in free v5.1 upgrade)	Gavin Greig
Axosoft PowerTrack 2004	VS2003 add-in fails to load	Gavin Greig
Axosoft OnTime 2005 for VS.NET	VS2003 add-in fails to load	Gavin Greig
BHODemon	Doesn't run as non-admin by design	Erwin Michiels
Canon ZoomBrowser	Does the equivt. of "chmod a+rwx /bin" on install	Peter Gutmann
Cadsoft Envisioneer 2.5HOS	Requires Modify permissions for Users on program folder, Full Control for Users on HLKM\Software\Cadsoft	Jeff Vandervoort
Corel Photo Album 6	Various problems when run as non-admin	KeithBrown
Dade Behring's BEP2000	Throws errors and does not retain settings (Keeps settings in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software)	Chris Ryan
DRS2006	Refuses to run any important modules of the software and gives multiple error messages	Aaron Wirth
Far Cry	Keeps settings and player profiles in Program Files folder. Keeps CD key info in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE, preventing multiplayer for working unless you join MP for the first time as admin. Uses punkbuster which requires elevated priviledges	Paul Blair
FinalFantasyXIIIHOS	Fails to install or run as non-admin	Don Box
FlightSimulatorHOS	Fails to run	Jonathan Hardwick
GreatNews RSS Reader	Doesn't save new feeds after quit	LordGilman
GoogleDesktopSearch	Refuses to install - "Installing...under different credentials than the active user is currently not supported."	Darren Sargent
FrontRange GoldMine Intergration Service for MS Outlook	"I have spoken to our Product Management team and they have informed me that currently GISMO is design to run in an environment were the users do have local admin rights to their PC’s."	Douglas Day
H&R Block TaxCut 2006	Refuses to run without admin rights. Customer support says "The administrative rights issue is currently our software safe passage."	Chris Gomez
InstallShield Professional Edition 11.0	Fails to run - registry hack required	Gavin Greig
Intel Graphics Driver Scheme Feature	Unusable as Non-Admin http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-020995.htm	G. Lee
InternetConnectionFirewallHOS	Can't query firewall status	KeithBrown
Jedi Academy	Fails to run - "Unable to open game folder. If you are logged on with limited privileges, please log off, log back on as Administrator and try again."	Darren Sargent
K-Meleon Browser	Tries to save user config in 'Program Files' directory KMelonBrowserNotes	Peter Gutmann
MacromediaCaptivateHOS	Can't export to Flash	Curt Hagenlocher
Macrovision FlexNet InstallShield Professional Edition 11.5	Fails to run - registry hack required	Gavin Greig
Macrovision FlexNet InstallShield Professional Edition 12.0	Fails to run - registry hack required	Gavin Greig
MediaMAX CD3	Will not allow CD to Play even if ran as admin first - "You must have Administrative priviledges to install/update MediaMAX. Please log in as Administrator and try again." Work Around --> http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~jhalderm/cd3/	Memo Juez
QNextIMAggregatorHOS	Attempts to save all configuration and session information to installation folder in "C:\Program Files\QNext".	Brian Reiter
ProShow Gold	Invalid memory access when run as non-admin	Peter Gutmann
PunkBuster	kicks/disconnects user when run as non-admin	J.Wilkes
Quick Books 2003	Fails to run as non-admin	Craig Andera
Quicken/2003	Fails to run as Limited User	Nick Collingridge
QuickenXG/2004	Fails to run as Limited User	Nick Collingridge
Quicken 2005	Fails to run as Limited User	Greg Smith
Quicken 2006	Fails to run as Limited User	Greg Smith
Retail Pro	Causes problems with registering .OCX files necessary for printing barcoded information	Anonymous
SoftMed ChartScript, ClinTrac, etc	Fails to run properly as Limited User	M. Mage
The Regulator	Writes to install directory	KeithBrown
Speed SQL IDE Pro	Configuration issues	Gavin Greig
Steam (Valve Software)	Hangs at 99% on update attempt when running as non-admin	Darren Sargent
StreetsAndTripsHOS	Can't download current data	Jonathan Hardwick
Sudoku	Won't shut down if not admin	KeithBrown
TheSims2HOS	Fails to run, dumps huge data in "My Docs"	Chris Quirke
TrillianHOS	Profile not saved	Mark Kordelski
TurboTaxHOS	Fails to run as Limited User	Nick Collingridge
VisualUmlHOS	Fails to load	M. Shawn Dillon
WebShotsHOS	Fails to run	KeithBrown
w.bloggar	description of problems	G. Andrew Duthie
Picasa	Fails to run	Anders Norås
WindowsXPClockHOS	Double-clicking the clock results in an error	Atif Aziz
WindowsXPPowerConfigurationHOS	Can't change power settings	KeithBrown
WindowsXPDefaultMailClient	Cannot be changed when logged on as Limited User	Nick Collingridge
MaxthonHOS	Writes configuration in program folder	Martin Hueser
VariousApps	Susan Bradley's collection of failed apps	KeithBrown
eMbedded Visual Tools 3.0 HOS	Fails to load because writes HKLM registry values and config files at startup	Sébastien Mouren
eMbedded Visual C++ 4.0 HOS	Fails to load because writes HKLM registry values and config files at startup	Sébastien Mouren
cdburnHOS	cdburn.exe, the command-line ISO burning tool from the Win2k3 reskit, reports "Error 1 opening device \\.\[drive letter]:\" if run as non-admin	Brian Reiter
Norton AntiVirus 2005	Signature files are NEVER updated if no admin logs in	Stéphane Barizien
Napster Client	Fails to play or stream any files as non-admin	Badriram Rajagopalan
ICQ_HOS	Fails to start	Tamas
Yahoo Music Engine	Crashes and tries to reload repeatedly. FIXED as of latest version	Badriram Rajagopalan
WordSearch 7HOS	Must have admin privs; confirmed by tech support	D.Paige
Gaim (IM Client)	Crashes at startup when run from LUA. Works only when logged on as Administrator.Update by breiter 1.4 works fine for me as LUA as have previous versions.	SG
MicrosoftDocumentExplorer70HOS	AKA MSDN. Works but constantly pops up Visual Studio installer dialogs.	Dan Finucane
Windows Explorer file associations	It's possible to "allways open this filetype with a certain program", but not to delete that association (use the command line to remove it)	Jan C K
WindowsProductActivationHOS	Consumes activation rights but doesn't update file wpa.dbl	Norman Diamond
Jack Nicklaus 5	Fails to load or install as non-Admin	jpr_me
Night Watch game	Crashes at startup when run by LUA (after admin install)	Michael Entin
McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator 3.5	Fails to connect to remote servers with unknown errors	Badriram Rajagopalan
Winamp 5.1	Skin change will fail silently, and playback will cause Memory could not be read error after 2-3 secs of playback. Giving write access to C:\Program Files\Winamp solves the issue, so it must be the permission thingy.	Hendrik Christian
HP Precision Scan	Fails to connect to scanner. Writes settings you Program Files folder. Fix: enable write access to HP folder for users.	Badriram Rajagopalan
CmdExeHOS	"Run As" + cmd.exe disables most keyboard input.	Norman Diamond
WindowsXPExplorerHOS	Windows Explorer can't choose which apps to open by default.	Norman Diamond
WindowsCrashReportingHOS	Rebooting after a BSOD, doesn't send a crash report to Microsoft.	Norman Diamond
Vendetta Online	Unable to download update	Nexxuz
RealArcadeHOS	Stores some user preferences in HKCR (instead of HKCU), therefore running as LUA rails	dcasp3r
Vistabeta2PrintscreenHOS	Print Screen key apparently requires Administrator	Norman Diamond
Webroot Window Washer 6.0	Won't run under limited account, won't run properly when (Run as) Admin	Jimmy Family
Farm Works Software	Generally unstable unless run as admin	Mark Norman
iVisit	Fails to install under LUA (creates log in C:\ where records that it is running with administrative rights -- morons!); when installed, fails to run under LUA (keeps all its data in Program Files folder).	Alex Kolesnichenko
Realflight G3 and G3.5	Must be logged on as an administrator, will not run with "Run As" : Listed on vendor page as "Local administration access required"	Matt Carmichael
Windows Date Applet	Won't even open for non-admin users (before Windows Vista)	Tanveer Badar
Microsoft VRMCPlus	Pathetic! Version 1.6 was released by Microsoft in 2007! Returns 'Access Denied' on connection	Mark Arnott
HP PSC 1215 Drivers	Restricted users are unable to print on XP Home. FileMon reports ACCESS DENIED on folder "C:\Windows\Temp folder" Fix: change the ACL on this folder and give users Full Control. e.g. xcacls c:\windows\temp /E /G BUILTIN\Users:F	Marcel Vons

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