DAZ Install Manager needs admin to run on vista??? [FOUND A FIX]

f00bar.root_6039d0dd5c

DAZ Install Manager needs admin rights to run on vista (32 bit), at least for me. Is that normal? Why?

And the install did not create any shortcut on desktop or in start menu. Is that normal too?

LeatherGryphon

fxbar said:

DAZ Install Manager needs admin rights to run on vista (32 bit), at least for me. Is that normal? Why?

And the install did not create any shortcut on desktop or in start menu. Is that normal too?

That's similar to the behavior I've seen with Studio4 trying to install on win7 and win8 in a Standard User account. I've pointed it out a couple of times in the trouble ticket system. I've bitched about it in the forums till I gave up. DAZ just doesn't seem to understand about Standard Users. Other companies get around the issue. Doesn't DAZ have anybody who thinks about these things?

So it doesn't surprise me that it might show up in this DAZ contraption also.

f00bar.root_6039d0dd5c

With Daz Studio 3 and 4/4.5 I just had to install as admin, but this thing I have to run as admin. I'm ready to install as admin, but I will not run stuff as admin!

With Daz Studio I had to fix some stuff installed to the admins home dir, but that's easy.

But I don't even understand why install as admin is needed? If you install to program dir and have no rights there ok, but if I install to a dir I have rights it gives me a strange feeling if admin is still needed. What are they doing, some kind of crazy DRM or what? What rights do they need beyond the rights a standard user has?

f00bar.root_6039d0dd5c

Could anybody with vista 32bit please confirm that it needs admin rights to run?
Otherwise I'm not sure if my install went wrong.
Thanks.

BTLProd

It is installing things, by definition it should have admin rights to do that. So yes, it does require admin rights to run.

Whether it actually really needs the rights to run, would depend on where you have things that it needs to install. For example if you have DAZ Studio installed to C:\Program Files and Install manager was installing Shaders or Puppeteer Presets then it would need Admin Rights to install to the DAZ Studio install Folder. (Or if it is installing DS plug-ins or DS itself down the road.)

If it is going to install Carrara content, which to work correctly needs to be in the Base Program directory, then it will also need Admin rights for a default install of Carrara.

So yes that is correct, and, according to Microsoft, correct behavior.

fixmypcmike

I'm running WIn7-64bit, and I don't need to run as administrator. Since it's extracting files from zips rather than running an executable installer, it shouldn't need to, as long as you have write privileges to the location you're installing to.

LeatherGryphon

To clarify my earlier statement. I understand that the program itself being installed on the system needs to have administrative privileges. So, as a Standard User you provide the Administrative password when it's needed for the program to install itself. The original poster observed that no icons were placed on the Desktop. I don't know whether he meant program icons, or content installation icons when installing models. Regardless, that's similar to the behavior I've noticed when installing Studio4 itself or installing content on my Studio4 machine while running as myself (a Standard User). The model is installed into the "users/admin/Documents/..." folder instead of my own Documents folder, and the icons, if any, are placed on the Administrator's desktop not my personal desktop.

I believe what's happening is that during initial installation of Studio4 after one provides the Administrative password an entry is made in the Windows Registry identifying the user of the program as "admin" instead of my own login. Subsequently some content installers apparently check that Registry entry and drop their load into the admin's library not mine. (*grrr*). I got around this problem by temporarily making my login account an administrative user, installing Studio4 so that the Registry entry points to my Documents folder. Then changing my login account back to a Standard User. If the same people who wrote the Studio4 installation code and content installers are writing the Installation Manager then I suspect that it might behave the same way.

I can't believe that I'm the only person to experience this, surely I'm not the only person to prefer to run as a Standard User.

Surely this is not an impossible problem because other companies are able to install programs that don't identify you as the administrator.

Why do I keep seeing the phrase "other companies can" when reading complaints about DAZ software?

f00bar.root_6039d0dd5c

The problem is only that DAZ explicitly configured the exe to require admin rights. WTF? There is no reason a program like this needs admin!

PLEASE FIX THAT DAZ!!!!!!!!!!!

Here a way to fix this:

If you have visual studio installed, you can use mt.exe to fix the manifest of the exe (there sure are other ways, but this worked for me).

extract manifest from exe:
mt -inputresource:DAZ3DIM.exe -out:extracted.manifest

change:
requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator"
to:
requestedExecutionLevel level="asInvoker"

embed corrected manifest in exe:
mt -manifest extracted.manifest -outputresource:DAZ3DIM.exe

Now it starts as normal user. Test download and install worked. WHY DAZ ARE YOU DOING THIS IF IT IS NOT NEEDED????

[Edit:]
I had the error that dzInstall.ini is not found in the log file (but seems not needed). So copy it from admin account to your account. It is here: AppData/Roaming/DAZ 3D/dzInstall.ini

fixmypcmike

I'm on Win7 and it isn't configured to run as admin.

f00bar.root_6039d0dd5c

@fixmypcmike: I think the manifest or at least "requestedExecutionLevel" is ignored in 64bit. But people on vista 32bit (and maybe other 32bit systems too) have the problem.