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installers that assume admin privs: what to do with them?

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urlwolf:
I wanted to install emacsW32 but it seems that the installer leaves all files under admin's ownership.

I could change the ownership, but still, when launching it, it tries to write to admin's home (and of course, gets permission denied). My guess is that somewhere in the registry something is assuming that the user who installs is the user who will use it (almighty-user-mode, the standard up to XP on most cases).

I cannot be 100% sure that it's the installer. But even if it's not, the general question arises,... what to do with programs that still use almighty-user-mode?

Ehtyar:
Your choices are Universal Extractor, or install and copy from another machine.

Ehtyar.

[edit]
Eeep, didn't fully read the post *headdesk*. I've installed xemacs before, but I made it a portable installation before I ran it first time, so I'm not quite sure I can help you here urlwolf. Sorry for the pointless post.
[/edit]

f0dder:
Run sysinternals Process Monitor (not explorer!), set a filter on the emacs executable and check which locations it reads - should clue you in on what you need to change to make it use the correct locations :)

Innuendo:
I would also put forward the suggestion of dropping a line to the program's author that the current way the program installs is NOT acceptable in this day and age of Windows Vista and Windows 7.

A text editor does not need admin levels of system access, IMHO.

Shades:
SysInternal's Process Explorer gives you an opportunity to run a piece of software using a more privileged user (if you know the correct user name and password). But accessing that functionality uses an ugly work flow.

http://www.ilyns.com/advanced-run.asp   is where you can get a piece of software that does the same but a lot easier and more pleasing to the eye (software is not working with 64-bit!)

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