CIV4 - Administrator rights? - won't install/run

[whizkid]

How can I get CIV4 to run and/or install on WIN XP Pro SP2 for a user that does not have administrator rights?

First, I installed CIV4 as an administrator, for all users. Then when this user logged in and went to run CIV4, it said that they must have administrator rights, and would not run. (It didn't even offer opportunity to run logged in as an administrator.)

Then I uninstalled completely. I went to installed it logged in as the user (typical 'power-user' rights), and the dialog box popped up to log on as administrator. I said no, and the game wouldn't run. Second time, after dialog box, I tried to log in as administrator specifically to run the install program; again, it did not load, install or anything. (Dialog box dissapeared from the screen and that was it.)

Giving this user (or any users) administrator rights is not an option. How can I bypass this requirement (and why would you need it, even)?

 

[whizkid]

Can anyone help here?

 

[lost_civantares]

The only way that I can think of off the top of the head is to get into administrator mode and look in the control panel about managing rights.

I run civ4 on my machine in non-admin mode purely for the sake if security and it works with out problem. It does have problems though when the non-admin is trying to access the admin my documents (and there for the civ4 folder in my games), so maybe it's trying to get stuff from there (but that doesn't make too much sense since civ4 has a folder in my games for every account, so who knows...)

 

[crunch]

What happened to me once is that the game installed itself completely under my user account folder. Make sure this is not the case. Install it to a folder where the non-admin user has full access.

 

[whizkid]

OK - I solved the problem. Took a few un-installs, re-installs to do it.

First, I installed the game as the Administrator. Then when trying to play as a 'Power User', it wouldn't load.

Then (after un-installing), I installed the game as the user. It still wouldn't work. The trick that did it:

I installed the game as a user with Administrator rights, but not the Administrator itself. (The standard user named 'Administrator' with Administrator rights.) Then I ran the game as this user (with Administrator rights), to set it up, create folders, etc.

After this, it works just fine for all users, regardless if the have Administrator rights, or not. However, these users have 'Power User' rights, allowing them to create files and folders, which may be required.