[ Help, pleez! ] Win 7 - Insufficient Privileges - Steam - WTH??

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busta_cap

Limp Gawd
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Aug 15, 2004
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I got a Crucial m4 256gb SSD and installed it as my primary drive a few weeks ago. After a few missteps because of using my old C:\ drive as my new D:\ drive (and the boot sector on it conflicting with the new Win7 install), I did a new clean install of Win7 that seemed to work well. I've been very cautious about installing software to it since then, just to ensure that it was going to work out okay.

So I finally got comfortable enough to start installing the good stuff last week. BF3 and Origin went alright, but then I went to install Steam and my array of 12-14 Steam-based games, a new and utterly unexpected monkeywrench flew into the works.

The Steam installer would fail with errors 1303 and 1307 "Installer has insufficient privileges" to access folders such as "c:\programdata\microsoft\windows\start menu\programs\steam" and it would tell me to log in as an administrator and try again. My default account is an administrator, so I was pretty sure that's not the issue, but I tried logging in as the account "Administrator" anyway and got the same result.

I tried assigning Full Control rights to the folder to basically every damned account and group on the computer with the same results.

I tried changing the owner of the c:\programdata\microsoft\windows\start menu\programs\ folder structure to myself and got the same result

I tried googling around for solutions and none of the suggestions has made basically any dent in the problem.

I have been screwing around with this since Saturday night and I'm very frustrated. Can you guys please help? And please don't tell me "Run as administrator" because I already tried that. In fact, since the Steam installer is an .MSI file, "Run as administrator" wasn't even a listed option for me. I had to use Winrar to extract the .EXE out of the .MSI and tried using "Run as administrator" on that file ... with the same results.

I'm about ready to go on a tri-state killing spree. ;) Any suggestions to help avert the bloodshed?
 
If you searched google/bing for those error codes and couldn't find anything, an option would be to run procmon and see what the steam installer is failing on.
 
I found one recommendation here

Download the client [steampowered.com].
Open SteamInstall.msi using an archive program (7zip, WinRAR).
Open Cabs.w1.cab.
Extract Steam.exe1
Rename Steam.exe1 to Steam.exe
Place Steam.exe in your desired location (Eg: C:\Games\Steam)
Run Steam.exe and let it update.
Click to expand...

Can you give that a try and see what happens?
 
devil22 said:
If you searched google/bing for those error codes and couldn't find anything, an option would be to run procmon and see what the steam installer is failing on.
Click to expand...

I'll try that when I get home tonight. Thanks.

Tawnos said:
I found one recommendation here

Can you give that a try and see what happens?
Click to expand...

I'll also try that when I get home tonight. Thanks.

I am concerned about the larger implications of this permissions cockup, though. I forgot to mention that I tried to install my copy of CorelDraw x5 before leaving this morning and had a similar failure. If I can't get the priveleges thing worked out soon, I'll have to take that install of Win7 out behind the barn and give it the Old Yeller treatment and reinstall.

Again.

Dammit.
 
busta_cap said:
I'll try that when I get home tonight. Thanks.



I'll also try that when I get home tonight. Thanks.

I am concerned about the larger implications of this permissions cockup, though. I forgot to mention that I tried to install my copy of CorelDraw x5 before leaving this morning and had a similar failure. If I can't get the priveleges thing worked out soon, I'll have to take that install of Win7 out behind the barn and give it the Old Yeller treatment and reinstall.

Again.

Dammit.
Click to expand...

Win8 comes out this week ;)
 
My son had a scouts event last night and we didn't get home until 9:45, so I didn't get a chance to try either of the suggested things out.

I'm bumping here to see if anyone has any thoughts on the "insufficient privileges" issue.
 
Couple of idea's...

  • First, go to Start/Run and type in "control userrpasswords2" and verify your account does indeed have admin privilages.
  • Right click on the installer, select properties, and the Compatibility Tab. Ensure the box for Compatibility Mode is NOT checked. I don't know why, but I run across installers set to Compatibility Mode (XP) all the time and it will indeed cause privilage issues when installing on Windows 7.
  • Uninstall it from Programs and Features, if it's there, and then scrub any leftover folders on the system. Try installing again.

One other tip. When I install an OS on any PC, I always take the cover off and pull the Sata Cable off ALL drives other than the main drive the OS is being installed on. After installing the OS and the basic patches and software, I'll then go in and re-attach the drives.

It's also a good idea to bring up the Drive Manager and look at the older drives to see if any hidden/protected/reserved partitions are left over, especially if they were ever used with Windows Vista and above. If there are, copy the data somewhere else and reformat the drive fresh.

busta_cap said:
I got a Crucial m4 256gb SSD and installed it as my primary drive a few weeks ago. After a few missteps because of using my old C:\ drive as my new D:\ drive (and the boot sector on it conflicting with the new Win7 install), I did a new clean install of Win7 that seemed to work well. I've been very cautious about installing software to it since then, just to ensure that it was going to work out okay.

So I finally got comfortable enough to start installing the good stuff last week. BF3 and Origin went alright, but then I went to install Steam and my array of 12-14 Steam-based games, a new and utterly unexpected monkeywrench flew into the works.

The Steam installer would fail with errors 1303 and 1307 "Installer has insufficient privileges" to access folders such as "c:\programdata\microsoft\windows\start menu\programs\steam" and it would tell me to log in as an administrator and try again. My default account is an administrator, so I was pretty sure that's not the issue, but I tried logging in as the account "Administrator" anyway and got the same result.

I tried assigning Full Control rights to the folder to basically every damned account and group on the computer with the same results.

I tried changing the owner of the c:\programdata\microsoft\windows\start menu\programs\ folder structure to myself and got the same result

I tried googling around for solutions and none of the suggestions has made basically any dent in the problem.

I have been screwing around with this since Saturday night and I'm very frustrated. Can you guys please help? And please don't tell me "Run as administrator" because I already tried that. In fact, since the Steam installer is an .MSI file, "Run as administrator" wasn't even a listed option for me. I had to use Winrar to extract the .EXE out of the .MSI and tried using "Run as administrator" on that file ... with the same results.

I'm about ready to go on a tri-state killing spree. ;) Any suggestions to help avert the bloodshed?
Click to expand...
 
Well, I tried a number things last night with no joy. And since I don't know whether the O&O Disk Image image I created just after this current installation also has this problem, simply restoring from that might be pointless.

I guess it's time for yet another a reformat/reinstall. This time, I will be certain to have all drives disconnected while the install & patching process is ongoing. Then I'll make a "Fresh Install" image and try Steam and Corel right off the bat to see of the problem exists.

Thanks for the suggestions. Any further non-smartass ones that don't involve Linux or Win8? ;)
 
Use ProcessMonitor to see what program is trying to read that path, what permissions that program is requesting for that directory, which account is starting the program (TrustedInstaller if it's the MSI service), etc.
 
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