General Systems: Windows 7 Administrator Elevated

Windows 7 has some additional Security Settings that you should be aware of other than UAC.  You have something called "AlwaysInstallElevated".  If you are in a secure enviroment and there are problems with the installation of an Autodesk product, please follow these instructions before installing your software:

1. Disable the User Access Control prior to the install. This can be done by opening the Control Panel > System and Security > Action Center > Change User Account Control settings and turning it to the lowest level. NOTE:  Please change this back to the default setting when you have completed installing the software!

Please check out this post for further information on User Access Control:

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2011/05/windows-user-access-control.html

2. Add the following policy for Windows Installer to the registry:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer]

Note: Windows 7 does not include this key and you will need to manually add the Installer key to the registry. Right-click on the Windows subkey and choose New > Key and then rename New Key #1 to Installer.

AlwaysInstallElevated = REG_DWORD: 0x00000001 (1)

Note: You need to right mouse click on the right zone of Regedit > New > DWORD (32bit) Value.  Rename New Value #1 to AlwaysInstallElevated and Data Value to 1.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer]

AlwaysInstallElevated = REG_DWORD: 0x00000001 (1)

There is additional information about this Windows Installer policy at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa367561(v=vs.85).aspx

NOTE:  Microsoft recommends that the policy be set back to "0" upon completion of the install maintenance!

3. Temporarily disable the Anti-Virus Software on  your computer.

4. Enable the Verbose Logging for Windows Installer and send the log files to Product Support if necessary:

http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS1070015 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223300

5. When launching the install, right click on the setup.exe or on the deployment shortcut and choose 'Run as Administrator'

The elevated policy for Windows Installer can be set just prior to the install launch through a batch script if you are pushing a deployment out in an enterprise environment.  

Thanks to Alison Gangler for this playbook on the installation of software.