Why the installer must be "run as administrator"

Same for me. I am with the administrator account, and double clicking always has been fine with me.

1 Like

some annotations:

1.) admin rights: the Window default user is already an admin sothat elevating the user rights by “run as admin” is often not required. This applies only to (typically business) systems with user accounts limited by restricted user rights. Additionally, Windows does some heuristics for detecting setup applications and run them with elevated user rights automagically.

2.) setup under admin account: an installation under an other user account (e.g. a dedicated admin account) than used for running SU later on does obviously install in e.g. the system directories or registry branch of the user context and may therefore impose issues in regard to user preferences/resources etc.

3.) installer prerequisites: the runtime libraries installed by the SU setup routine f. Windows are not installed by the SU installer itself but by the according MS setup applications either embedded in the SU setup package (-> open with ZIP application) or downloaded during the installation from the MS website. The SU setup routine has therefore no influence on the MS installers failing, besides maybe limited user rights derivated from the SU setup routine in a limited user context.

Very good idea, Dan, even though it’s strange that over the last eleven years I’ve never had any kind of security rejection loading SU.

that’s not strange but normal if using the standard Windows user account created during the Windows installation which does have admin rights by default.

1 Like

Windows 7, XP (others I have not checked) do not normally expose the elevated admin at login but you can set your system so it does. The elevated admin is set when you first install widows. I have posted this more than once many times.
However, using SU is not the only way to get there for windows; IE select start, then all programs , then accessories and you will find the command prompt, if you then select the properties for it you have the option to run as admin. The reason I use this is you are not limited to the user file path like if done in SU.
So when it is done in SU you see c:\users%username% and for elevated you see c:\windows\system 32 BTW if you use the latter approach the system file checker ( SFC) can be run that checks all the critical files and corrects them if problems found.
FYI for W7 users:

I’m not talking of the Admin account but the Window default user account which already does have admin rights by default, nothing else.

Does this mean I have to reinstall SketchUp? Where is the Installer? If I do, will I lose all my extensions that I have installed? Especially the ones I had to pay for.

Probably not. Most likely you can just repair the installation. Right click on the installer and choose Run as administrator. Then choose the Repair option.

Normally it would be in your Downloads folder. If not, look at sketchup.com/download/all.

No. They won’t be touched by the repair.

1 Like

One thing to think about, you would only be here thinking about reinstalling as admin if you have had a problem. If you don’t currently have a problem there isn’t a need to reinstall.

Something else good to know is that when we test the installers we do it not as admin. It could well be that the issues that happened with SketchUp 2017 were improved in a later version. If any specific issue is fixed by installing as admin, with SketchUp 2018 or later, it would be worth reporting the problem.

Hi Dave, When I try to do a repair On Sketchup, I get this error.Repair Error

That would imply that there are some issues with your Windows installation. What version of Windows are you using?

See:

And later in the same thread:

I think someone trying to install SketchUp on a machine with the Server version of Windows reported similar issues.

I am using Windows 10 Home. The second option you sent me doesn’t look like it is supported in Windows 10

Supported Operating System

Windows 7 Service Pack 1, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Vista Service Pack 2, Windows XP Service Pack 3

Hi Dave,

I removed SketchUp from my Computer and did a new install using the *.msi installer you recommended. I have to head to work now, so I will let you know how it goes when I return. I want to thank you for your help.

1 Like

Dave,
Even a clean install of Sketchup did not rectify my problem with “Dynamic Components”. Don’t know where to go from here.

Did you also install the current Dynamic Component extensions from the Extension Warehouse after repairing the installation?

Again, what is the problem with DCs? Actually repost in your other thread on that point.

I did not reinstall the Dynamic Components with the new install of SketchUp because it comes with the Pro version that I have.


This graphic shows what is happening.

I know it comes with it. It doesn’t hurt to install it again.

This is taking the thread off topic. Start a new one and include your SketchUp model file.

I’m not sure I know how to start a new thread Dave.

At the top of the main forum page click on New Topic.