Cannot install games - need administrator privileges

TanyaC

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I thought I had finally gotten my sons computer going. Except for a number of everyday applications that require authorization to open everytime, like Winrar.

But no so. My son has a significant investment in games.

1. One game, Sim City 4, wont install because it says "You need administrator privileges to install this game". There is no way to run as administrator from the retail CD. So we copied the files to HD, and tried to install from there, at least we could run setup.exe as administrator, but the game would not run. Complained of missing files (X_INPUT).

2. We backed up many of his Game CDs to our file server some time ago. This way, when we have to reinstall stuff, it's much faster from the server, than from the DVD drive. We found that in every instance, trying to open the .ISO or .RAR archives resulted in an error, where on windows 7 there was no problem. The error message is simply that the file could not be opened, yet they are fine.

3. We tried to install Star Craft 2, but it does nothing. Running it from the retail CD did nothing. Copying the files to the HD and then running setup as administrator did nothing.

you get the picture.. As we go through installing his games, we find so many that require elevatred rights or just wont install. Borderlands 2 which he just bought, managed to get running but it comes up with errors at the start, then crashes when you try to exit. But it works fine on Windows 7.

I turned off UAC, and turned off approval mode, but this did not solve any of the problems. All it did was disable metro apps, which he wants to be able to run.

Installed the games using the built in administrator accounts, but when attempting to run then from his account, they either do nothing, or just crash, such as with KOTOR.

I'm going to try creating a WIndows 7 VM on his Windows 8 computer as a short term solution, as dumb as that is! I have a few spare Windows licences. But I'd prefer to resolve the issues if possible.

All the research I've done says "live with it". You can't disable UAC, you can't get rid of the incessant and frequent nags, permission errors or lack of elevated privileges. I've been using computers since 1982, and never have I had so much problems getting anything done.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Ultimate X64
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Made
    CPU
    Intel I7-3770K running @ OC 4.6ghz
    Motherboard
    ASRock Extreme6 Z77
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    32GB G-Skill CL10Q @ 2400
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    EVGA GTX670 SC 4gb
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    Creative XFI Fataility Platinum
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    1TB WD1000EARX SATA 3 Data
    WD15EADS 1.5TB
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    Corsair HX650 Silver Professional Series
    Case
    HAF 932 ADV
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    Corair H100 liquid cooler
    Keyboard
    Logitech G110 Gamer keyboard
    Mouse
    Razor Mamba
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    ADSL 2+ 20.0mbps
    Other Info
    Gigabit infrastructure; Cabling, switches; DSL2750B Modem/Router All PCs connect to Windows 2008 R2 server for website, coldfusion, SQL, Firebird and media sharing & WSUS
I suggest you change his account to an Admin-level one, install the games, then revert it back. I couldn't quite tell if you had tried that, already.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8, Windows 7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Z210
    Internet Speed
    25mbps
oops.. My bad, his account is an administrator account.

He is an experienced (power) computer user so he's used to being able to do what he wants.. Struggles a bit with the Windows 8 philosophy of "We'll (M$) decide what we want to let you install on your computer, not you!" :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Ultimate X64
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Made
    CPU
    Intel I7-3770K running @ OC 4.6ghz
    Motherboard
    ASRock Extreme6 Z77
    Memory
    32GB G-Skill CL10Q @ 2400
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX670 SC 4gb
    Sound Card
    Creative XFI Fataility Platinum
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG 27" x 2 E2742-BV
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    OCZ Vertex 4 256GB (OS) SATA 3
    1TB WD1000EARX SATA 3 Data
    WD15EADS 1.5TB
    PSU
    Corsair HX650 Silver Professional Series
    Case
    HAF 932 ADV
    Cooling
    Corair H100 liquid cooler
    Keyboard
    Logitech G110 Gamer keyboard
    Mouse
    Razor Mamba
    Internet Speed
    ADSL 2+ 20.0mbps
    Other Info
    Gigabit infrastructure; Cabling, switches; DSL2750B Modem/Router All PCs connect to Windows 2008 R2 server for website, coldfusion, SQL, Firebird and media sharing & WSUS
oops.. My bad, his account is an administrator account.

He is an experienced (power) computer user so he's used to being able to do what he wants.. Struggles a bit with the Windows 8 philosophy of "We'll (M$) decide what we want to let you install on your computer, not you!" :)

Alright, here's my suggestion:

With the .ISO files you have, use Daemon Tools (Lite or Pro) to "mount" them, it will more so add a "virtual DVD drive" to the computer, and mount the .ISO as a virtual DVD/CD, so you can use any available autorun/setup. This way, Windows reads it as a legitimate disc. (To mount the .ISO after you've installed Daemon Tools, just double click it. Notice the new icon for .ISO files)

Anither way is to try ripping the games that aren't installing off discs (use IMGBURN or similar to get the .ISO) then again, mount in Daemon Tools and install.

Note that; all the above require administrator rights, and may do so whilst playing as well.

Daemon Tools Lite and IMGBurn

http://www.daemon-tools.cc/eng/products/dtLite

http://imgburn.com

(Sorry, normal HTML word hyper linking that I use didn't work)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel i7 6700K
    Motherboard
    ASRock Z170 Extreme4
    Memory
    Corsair Vengeance 3200MHz 64GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA RTX 2060 Super
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Xiaomi ‎XM700001 + Dell P2421
    Screen Resolution
    3440x1440
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 870 Evo 1TB, Samsung 870 Evo 500GB, WD Blue EZRZ 4TB x3
    PSU
    Silverstone Strider 650W Gold Plus
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D15
    Keyboard
    Coolermaster Masterkeys Pro S
    Mouse
    Razer Basilisk Ultimate
    Internet Speed
    100/40
    Browser
    Firefox
Hi there
if there is an .EXE, .MSI or other install type file on the install media try RIGHT mouse clicking on that and then chose "Run as administrator". That often works when a user even defined as an admin account doesn't work.

Another issue might be that the target directories for the game might be "Owned" by the system --try changing a few of the file / directory permissions.

Cheers
jimbo
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Linux Centos 7, W8.1, W7, W2K3 Server W10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1 X LG 40 inch TV
    Hard Drives
    SSD's * 3 (Samsung 840 series) 250 GB
    2 X 3 TB sata
    5 X 1 TB sata
    Internet Speed
    0.12 GB/s (120Mb/s)
I'm not far in KOTOR, just on the Endar Spire but I can run the game so far. That being said, I've installed a few games on my computer without any problems. Try running KOTOR in administrator mode with XP SP3 compatibility enabled. I haven't had to do that yet but maybe it'll help you.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 64-bit/ Windows 8.1 64-bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Desktop: Allison Designs by Austin Computers / Laptop: Toshiba Satellite L50-A006
    CPU
    Intel Core i5- 4590/ Intel Core i5 processor 4200U
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte H97M-D3H/ ?
    Memory
    16 GB Kingston at 1600 Mhz/ 4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte Geforce GTX 760 OC Windforce (2 GB/256-bit)/ nVIDIA GeForce GT 740M 2GB
    Sound Card
    Onboard Audio'
    Monitor(s) Displays
    AOC 2216Vw 22"/ 15.6" Widescreen HD LED Backlit Display
    Screen Resolution
    1680*1050 / 1366*768
    Hard Drives
    2 TB Western Digital Black Caviar Drive (7200 RPM)/ 750GB (5400rpm) with Toshiba HDD Accelerator
    PSU
    Coolermaster 750W VS Series 80+ Gold Power Supply (Desktop Only)
    Case
    Corsair Carbide SPEC-02 Mid Tower Gaming Case (Desktop Only)
    Cooling
    Two Case 120 mm fans and GPU, CPU, PSU cooled by own fans respectively. (Desktop Only)
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Wired Keyboard Desktop 600 (Desktop Only)
    Mouse
    Microsoft Wired Mouse 600/ Toshiba Touchpad and Logitech Mouse
    Browser
    Internet Explorer and Google Chrome
    Antivirus
    Norton 360 by Symantec
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