fwiw,
new win7 ultimate x64 installation, fully updated. I did not do any "run as administrator" stuff. I popped in the civ4 complete dvd and let the auto-run setup start. The civ 4 complete install defaulted to "c:\program files x86" and i let it install there (no special folder needed).
I manually installed BTS 3.19 patch, blue marble, BUG4.4 and my mod. no issues.
The only special thing about my win7 installation is a MS hotfix i downloaded to fix an offline files issue, KB244467, I DO NOT think this helped, but who knows.
this is on a DELL inspiron 1520 w/ SSD.
I do have one question, the ci4 complete install pretty much only gives the choice to install colonization or not. Any way to ONLY install BTS?
Had a similar experience with Civ 4 Complete on Win 7 Pro 64-Bit logged in with an admin account.
Here are the steps I took to get the game patched and running MODs via desktop shortut:
1. Installed Civ4 Complete without running as admin - chose express install
2. After install of both Civ4 and Colonization, there was a Civ4 Complete shortcut on the desktop.
3. Clicked shortcut and selected Run as Administrator
4. Selected Check for Updates from Advanced Menu
5. After auto-downloading 3.19 patch, clicked ok to install update (this is where it previously would not work and just dump to desktop because I was not running the game as admin)
6. Click through patch process, selecting language and default install and license agreement.
This then successfully patched from Civ 4 complete DVD to 3.19
Note that the default desktop shortcut does not allow the advanced properties to select Always Run as Admin. To get around this, I deleted that shortcut and then browsed to my install destination - then to Civ4 BotS director and then selected Civ4BeyondtheSword.exe, right clicked and send to desktop as a shortcut. I was then able to select that shortcut advanced properties and set Always Run as Admin.
To create shortcuts for my favorite mods, I then copied the new desktop shortcut and added the correct "mod=\" properties to the Target:
Hope this helps!