[tor-bugs] #8376 [Tor bundles/installation]: Tor requires "Run as Administrator" to install on Win 7 (and Win 8?)

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#8376: Tor requires "Run as Administrator" to install on Win 7 (and Win 8?)
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     Reporter:  cypherpunks          |      Owner:
         Type:  defect               |     Status:  needs_review
     Priority:  normal               |  Milestone:
    Component:  Tor                  |    Version:
  bundles/installation               |   Keywords:  needs-triage, tbb-
   Resolution:                       |  helpdesk-frequent
Actual Points:                       |  Parent ID:
       Points:                       |
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Changes (by mttp):

 * status:  reopened => needs_review


Comment:

 Replying to [comment:14 mo]:
 > To request administrative privileges, change "RequestExecutionLevel
 user" to "RequestExecutionLevel admin" to tor-mingw.nsi.in. Downside: It
 only actually needs admin if the user wants to install to Program Files or
 similar.
 >
 ...
 > All of these changes are not ideal.

 My guess is that if this problem is fixed by changing the installation
 directory to some unprivileged location, e.g. in the user directory,
 many users installing Tor will try to set the installation directory to
 "Program Files" anyways because they are used to having all their
 applications in one folder. If they are running the installer as their
 regular user, they won't be happy when the installation fails in this
 case. I used to see users try to do this with the old-style Tor Browser
 Bundles.

 Installing Tor to Program Files is the correct "Windows way" of installing
 system software. If a user is setting up a relay or a hidden service with
 Tor they will probably need full machine access anyway to do things like
 install a web server or open router ports, so I don't see requiring Admin
 privileges for Tor installation as a huge loss. Remember it's only the
 installer getting Admin access, not Tor.

 Based on a code comment by the 'RequestExecutionLevel user' line, my
 guess is that whoever last modified that line replaced the admin value
 with user only to preserve compatibility with Windows XP and below,
 which can't respond to that line in the correct manner. There's another
 way to support Windows XP though, which is to check directly whether or
 not the user is Administrator and tell them they need to be if the answer
 is no.

 I've attached a patch that automatically prompts for Administrator access
 when the installation starts (the Windows way) for users of Vista and
 above,
 and also tells users of Windows XP and below that they need to run the
 installer as Administrator. I believe this behavior provides a much better
 experience than the current behavior, wherein users have to "just know" to
 right-click and run the installer as Administrator or face a variety of
 undocumented confusions.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/8376#comment:20>
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