Why is my Delphi 6 program triggering a request for admin rights upon install on only a minority of Windows 7 systems (InnoSetup)?

Question

I have a Delphi 6 program that for most users installs fine while running under a user account without admin privileges. However, on some systems it triggers a request for admin rights. Unfortunately mine isn't one of them so it's hard for me to diagnose this problem. I use InnoSetup 5.1.9 to build my install programs.

How can I figure out what I need to change about my installation program's configuration to neutralize the need for admin rights on some people's systems? It's causing trouble for my system because during installation, certain program data files are being copied into the admin account's application data folder. Then when my program is launched under a user account, those files can not be found since they are not in the user account application folder, where they are expected to be.

Answer 1

This happens due to default PrivilegesRequired directive value, which is, by default configured to require administrator elevation. If you don't need this, simply change in your InnoSetup script, value of this directive explicitly to something like this:

[Script]
PrivilegesRequired=lowest

From the reference:

When PrivilegesRequired is set to lowest , Setup will not request to be run administrative privileges even if it was started by a member of the Administrators group. Additionally, the uninstall info root key will always be HKEY_CURRENT_USER, and the "common" forms of the Shell Folder constants are mapped to the "user" forms, even if administrative privileges are available.