Autodesk Inventor Services & Support

Restricted user and UAC behavior in Inventor 2012 and beyond

Problem

You want to know if you need to turn-off UAC (User Account Control) and require admin rights in order to:

  • Run Inventor 2012
  • Switch between Inventor versions on your machine

    • Explanation

    Microsoft uses two distinct user types: administrator and standard users (also referred to as restricted or limited users).  This article explains the  changes for restricted users between Inventor 2011 and 2012.

    Before Inventor 2012, restricted users could not switch between versions of Inventor.  They needed to have an admin do this for them. Since Inventor 2012, restricted users on Windows XP and standard users on Vista/Win7 can switch to newer versions of Inventor.  Admin rights are still required to switch to Inventor 2011 and earlier.

    Here is more detail about what you can and cannot do as a restricted user starting with the 2012 release:

  • Installing and uninstalling Inventor requires admin rights as is clearly stated in the installer warning dialog that can be seen below. This is required for all releases of Inventor and on all operating systems.

    •  

     

  • Switching to Inventor 2011 (and earlier) requires admin rights in order to complete a full registration cycle.  This is comprised of starting and exiting Inventor as an admin. This procedure is necessary to correctly register all subcomponents (such as the Windows Explorer shortcut menus. shell extensions, API, Add-Ins and Apprentice) in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. This reason this limitation continues to exist is because we cannot add Win7 compliance to these older releases in a service pack.

  • On all operating systems, restricted users can run Inventor 2012 with UAC enabled. As stated in the readme, Inventor 2012 and beyond is now “UAC-friendly”.

    •  

  • On Vista and Win7, it is no longer required to run Inventor with the “Run As Administrator” context menu option.  This was necessary for Inventor 2011 or earlier.  On Win7, Inventor will run correctly if inadvertently “Run as Administrator”.  On Vista, you must apply the hotfix in KB971138 for “Run as Administrator” to work correctly.

    •  

  • Restricted users can configure the add-in load behavior in the Add-in Manager.

    •  

  • Restricted users cannot modify or add files located under the C:\Program Files folder.  This includes the project macros which are stored in the C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor [Release Number]\bin\Macros folder, such as default.ivb.

    •  

    Legacy behavior

    For the behavior in releases prior to 2012, see TS1088146.

    Support – Terms of Use
    AUTODESK DOES NOT GUARANTEE THAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO SUCCESSFULLY DOWNLOAD OR IMPLEMENT ANY SERVICE PACK OR WORKAROUND, OR ANY OF THE TIPS, TRICKS, EXAMPLES OR SUGGESTIONS OUTLINED IN ANY AUTODESK PRODUCT SUPPORT TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS. TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS, SERVICE PACKS AND WORKAROUNDS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE TO YOU. AUTODESK PROVIDES TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS, SERVICE PACKS AND WORKAROUNDS "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL AUTODESK OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, LOSS OF DATA, OR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, THAT MAY OCCUR AS A RESULT OF IMPLEMENTING ANY SERVICE PACK OR WORKAROUND, OR ANY SUGGESTION OUTLINED IN ANY AUTODESK PRODUCT SUPPORT TECHNICAL DOCUMENT, EVEN IF AUTODESK OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
    • Did this page resolve your issue?
    • Translate This Page (Beta)

      Learn More about this translation beta.Page is machine translated. Learn More.

      Was this translation useful?

    • Document Information

      Published date: 2011-Nov-17
      ID: TS18138720

       

      Applies to:
      Autodesk Design Suite 2012
      Autodesk Factory Design Suite 2012
      Autodesk® Inventor® 2012
      Autodesk® Inventor® Factory Advanced 2012
      Autodesk® Inventor® Factory Premium 2012
      Autodesk® Inventor® Fusion 2012
      Autodesk® Inventor LT™ 2012
      Autodesk® Inventor® Professional 2012