grant administrator privilege once and have it stick

[wvomsaal]

I am running BCompare 3 in Windows 7. It runs fine when I log on as an administrator. When I log on as a regular user and try to run BC3 I get a request for administrative authorization. How can I grant authorization once and get it to stop asking me each time it runs?

I want to do this because I run several scripts (using Schedule Tasks in Windows 7) that automatically back up files daily. They run fine when I am logged on as an administrator. I want them to run while logged on as a user without requiring authorization.

I don't believe the problem is with permission to read/write to files - I have already granted such permissions to the user for all relevant files. The problem is getting BC3 to run without having to grant permission for it to run each time the script tries to start the program.

Thanks for any help.
Walter vom Saal (long time satisfied user!)

[Aaron]

Hello,

You can control this setting in Windows, if you right click the shortcut or executable, go to Properties, and in the Compatibility tab enable "Run As Administrator". The default, more secure settings of Windows 7 generally don't grant admin access by default.

[wvomsaal]

Thank you for responding. I had already done what you suggest. Run as administrator is enabled for all users for BCompare.exe. I re-tested and realize that even when logged on as an administrator, when I try to run BCompare.exe I get the message "Do you want the following program to make changes to this computer? [Program Name = Beyond Compare]" I assume I could change User Account Control Settings from the default "Notify me only when programs try to make changes to my computer" (Windows recommended setting) but I would prefer not to do that if I don't have to. Is there some other way to grant Beyond Compare the permission it needs to run without changing my overall User Account Control Settings?

[wvomsaal]

More information that may help: I tried temporarily changing User Account Control settings to allow programs make changes without notifying me. With that setting, BC3 runs without my being asked for permission when I am logged on to the computer as an administrator, but when I am logged on as a standard user I still am asked to grant authorization.

[Aaron]

Not that I am aware of using the built-in Windows tools. UAC, by design, is meant to provide some prompts to prevent programs from gaining administrator access without expressed approval.

I did a bit of searching and stumbled into this blog post, which might have some tips for you:

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window-on-windows/selectively-disable-uac-for-your-trusted-vista-applications/635

*Please note that we do not support the Application Compatibility Toolkit. It appears to be a Microsoft product, and is not made by Scooter Software.

[wvomsaal]

Thank you for trying to help. I may try the link you suggested. Here is another one I found that may work:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/how-create-program-shortcut-run-without-uac-prompt-windows-7.htm

If I have time to try these and test them, I will report back here.

In the meantime, IF ANYONE ELSE HAS ANY SUGGESTIONS, please post them.
Walter vom Saal

[wvomsaal]

SOLUTION FOUND.
I did not follow the suggestions above, because I decided to try re-installing BC3 to see if that worked to solve my problem. It did work.

1. log on as administrator and uninstall BCompare 3
2. log on as user and download and install Beyond Compare, BUT select “create a portable install” and save it in a folder inside My Documents for that user (instead of the default location for the installation for all users, which was c:\Program Files(x86)\Beyond Compare 3).
3. log on as administrator again and change the scripts to run BCompare.exe from its new location.
4. Now when I log on as a user the scripts run with no prompt asking for permission.
5. Note: I also logged back on as administrator and ALSO installed Beyond Compare 3 for all users so I could get the right-click options to select folders to compare in Windows Explorer.

I am not sure the uninstall and reinstall of BC3 for all users were necessary. Perhaps steps 2 and 3 above were all that were required. In any case, the problem I originally experienced is solved: my scripts now run automatically when logged on as a user with no administrative privileges, and I do NOT receive prompts asking for authorization.

[Aaron]

Ah,

By running BC3 as the user account that does not need the UAC prompt, BC3 can copy the files. A portable install is a single directory install that stores all settings in the same folder, so any user (either the script user or your regular Windows user) would show and share the same settings in the GUI or script.

The one disadvantage to this setup is you do have two separate installs of BC3. The right-click context menu would use the main install, which would not share settings with the portable install.