Thursday, April 22, 2010

Error 1925 - workaround

I was trying to install a program from an MSI file on a Windows 7 machine. I had so much trouble and such a hard time finding the solution that I thought I would post it here to help anyone who might be Googling for an answer.

The install seemed fine until it reached the end (and tried to write to the Program Files (x86) directory.) Then I'd get a 1925 error, claiming I did not have administrative privileges. I was logged into my admin account when this happened. Since the installer was an MSI file, I couldn't right click and "Run as Administrator" like you would on a exe file.

I contacted the program vendor and Googled this for two days. A lot of programs that use MSI installers can produce this error. However, most frustrated users never seem to get a solution. Most people write it off as a registry problem or a user who doesn't know what an Admin account is.

Here's what I learned: Even though you're logged in as an Administrator, you may not be installing with full admininistrator authority. If the installer doesn't give you a request window asking you to elevate your permissions to Administrator, odds are you don't. This gives you the 1925 Error. Since the msi file doesn't give you the option of "Run as Administrator", you have to run the installer from a command prompt which has admin rights set manually.

Go to Start-->All Programs-->Accessories
Right click on Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator
type in the path name to the installer (e.g. C:\Users\Name\Downloads\install.msi, or whatever it might be) and hit return.

The program should now install with Admin permissions. Many msi installers run into this problem for reasons I can't imagine. I hope this helps solve your problem.

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