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Stupidly long story short...

I have access to Windows 7 computer that I can only log into with a "Guest" account. The Guest account does not have Administrator access.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is already installed, and in fact there is a shortcut on the desktop; however, attempting to run it prompts me for an Administrator password. I do know someone who is an Administrator, but I don't want to bother her every time I want to run the game.

Can I play Star Wars: The Old Republic on this machine, and if so how? I am willing to have the Administrator set something up (a shortcut or something), just so long as I can run it without her help.

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    Related, if not duplicate (as this is probably why it's asking): gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/42747/…
    – Nick T
    Dec 28, 2011 at 6:23
  • @Nick Not really the same question. Looks like the UAC prompt happens, even on Admin accounts, if you have UAC on. That's not the issue, here, though they are related - looks like the solution might end up being the same. What a pain!
    – Mag Roader
    Dec 28, 2011 at 16:01
  • @MagRoader: They are exactly the same reasons. Remember, even on Admin accounts, programs are launched with User rights. A program that pops a UAC on an Admin account will also pop a UAC on an User account and vice versa.
    – surfasb
    Dec 28, 2011 at 20:28
  • I posted an answer to How do I stop the launcher bringing up the UAC prompt every time? that I have tested on windows 8.1
    – user61492
    Feb 1, 2014 at 19:34

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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Technically, yes but it's a bit of a hassle to set up.

You'll need to use Microsoft's Application Compatibility Toolkit to apply shims to the launcher.

  1. First, download and install both the Compatibility Toolkit and the Application verifier.
  2. Run the Compatibility Toolkit's Standard User Analyzer Wizard . It is located in Start Menu > Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit > Developer and Tester Tools
  3. Enter the location (or browse for) the launcher. It should be in C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars-The Old Republic
  4. Click Launch
  5. Very Important: You should see 2 LUA Prompts: the first for the Standard User Analyser and the Second for the SWTOR Launcher. Accept the first but decline the second.
  6. The Analyser will ask whether the application ran without problems. The launcher should not have launched (If it did, you may have accepted the LUA prompt I said to decline earlier). Click No
  7. The Analyser will suggest some mitigations. You should only need to check Force Administrator Access (*), but if you want to be sure or if it doesn't work the first time, you can check them all; it will only loosen some security in a few extremely specific folders/registry keys. That should not cause any problem in an environment that allows you to play SWTOR.
  8. Click "Launch" to test the settings.
  9. The launcher should have launched properly without any prompts. If it didn't, click no and select somemore mitigations in step 7.
  10. Once the launcher works properly, Click Yes then Export to create an msi file containing your fixes.
  11. Run the generated MSI to install the shims permanently.

There is one last step to take care of every last prompt. In the extras folder of your SWTOR installation (so C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars-The Old Republic\extras), there should be a file named vc2008redist_x86.exe. Rename it to vc2008redist_x86.exe.unused

(*) Despite the name, this shim does not give Administrator access to the launcher without your knowledge; it lies to the launcher telling it you are an Administrator when in fact you are not

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    If anyone want to try to skip to step 11, here's my msi. I'm not making any promises to whether or not it'll work (For starters, I installed SWTOR on my D drive), but if it can save someone some time, then great.
    – 3Doubloons
    Dec 28, 2011 at 7:03
  • This is a more detailed version of my answer. Excellent work. gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/42747/…
    – surfasb
    Dec 28, 2011 at 20:26
  • Thank you for this detailed guide. At step 7 I unchecked everything except "Force Administrator access" and it worked for me. But i'm wondering about this vc2008redist_x86.exe. Maybe someone can tell me why it does even exists if it isn't needed.
    – raznagul
    Jan 2, 2012 at 17:38
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    It is technically needed, but only once. It's the installer for the Visual Vtudio redistributable dlls. Ideally, it'd only need to be installed once, but for some reason Bioware runs it on every launch.
    – 3Doubloons
    Jan 2, 2012 at 19:21
  • For me, the default settings didn't work. But using just "Force Administrator access" did work.
    – svick
    Jan 4, 2012 at 22:37
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I successfully run the program using Compatibility Mode for Windows 2000.

Find launcher.exe and go to the program Properties (Right-click > Properties) > Compatibility tab. There, check the Run this program in compatibility mode for: box, and select Windows 2000 in the Drop-down.

My specific information: I'm running Windows 7 without UAC (on a non-administrator account, of course), and installed to a location outside of my Program Files directory.

I have also verified that this does not show the UAC prompt when using UAC.

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  • This still needs to be tested properly.
    – Frank
    Jul 13, 2012 at 17:45
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I have successfully gotten the loader to work by first trying out the above method of changing the compatibility mode to that of Windows 2000 but it failed. So I then did the following:

From the Administrator account I right clicked the Star Wars KOTR icon and then I choose the option for Troubleshoot Compatibility. It will open up a small window, simply run the option for troubleshooting it in Windows XP service pack 2, then in the following window click on the start program button to test the loader and it should open the SW login window and you should be good, close out the login window and then click next and then click on the first option to save the settings and your all set!

Hope this helps anyone out that may be having the login issue with SW KOTR UAC error with Windows 7.

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One solution is to install the game somewhere that doesn't require special permissions to access. (Note that the existing install folder can simply be moved, since SWTOR is completely self-contained.)

For example, I have my game installed to my secondary drive (D:\SWTOR) which has the Full Access permission granted for the System user and the Everyone group. You could have the Administrator apply these permissions to only the SWTOR folder as well (and remove any limiting permissions from it also).

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  • This does not work with SWTOR. I installed the game into a folder where everyone has full access, and it still requires admin permissions.
    – Trisped
    Feb 13, 2016 at 19:12
  • @Trisped Interesting, it works for me. I have Win8, are you using a different version?
    – Matthew Read
    Feb 14, 2016 at 2:56
  • I tried it with Windows 7 and Windows 10.
    – Trisped
    Feb 15, 2016 at 18:26

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