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windowsregistry

Changing registry without admin rights

I thought I needed admin rights for changing registry (I get errors if my app doesn't have such). Maybe only some part of the registry require admin rights.

Could you give some information? I need to store my app data somewhere without admin rights.

Solution

  • You need administrative privileges to write to locations that are shared by multiple users.
    In the filesystem, this means folders like \WINDOWS or \Program Files. In the registry, this means all of the hives which aren't per-user.

    Therefore, you can only write to HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
    Specifically, you should write to HKCU\Software\Your Company.