Yes, they must run it as admin.
TFS Can't create registry key.Solved
A client is trying to install the TurboFloatServer app. I provided a batch file to make it simpler for them (1 to activate, 5 to install as a service and start etc).
They report that activation went ok, and the LimeLM dashboard agrees that the key has been activated (though strangely: I see 3 different activation times).
However when they run the "Install as service and start" function they get the following error message:
"2017-12-20, 09:58:11 <error>: Failed to create the registry key in Software\TurboFloatServer".
Response to my initial suspicions is that user claims to have admin rights on the target PC. Can you tell me of any other reason for this error message?
I should note that we have of course tested these batch file functions in-house before letting a client use them, and the worked fine for us.
Thanks for the quick answer - and yes, I understand that admin rights are required to install software in Windows. However the client claims to be already running as admin (the contact seems to be their IT guy), so I asked if there is any OTHER reason for this error message to appear?
Reasons off the top of my head: (1) not admin, (2) service already installed (would you report this as a fatal error?), (3) registry corruption (unlikely).
Could I have an answer please? The client is waiting.
The only other reasons would be a corrupt registry. But that's very unlikely. It's almost without a doubt because the end-user did not run the installation process from an admin commandline.
Honestly, the easiest thing to do to avoid this problem is make a simple installer for your instance of the TFS and have it always run as admin. This way there's 0 room for error.
Hmm. Not running the command console using "Run as administrator" does seem like a likely error. Worth suggesting.
I don't have a great deal of practice writing installers, I can't do it on a whim, as most of my work is in house and doesn't need one. So, I didn't relish the prospect of taking time away from interesting stuff to work on that. OTOH the batch file is something I could knock up quite quickly.
Problem solved.
Just to provide the solution in case others read this. It turns out to be vital to run the command console using "Run as administrator", even if the user thinks he has admin rights already. The caption on the command console window should read "Administrator: Command Prompt". If it doesn't say administrator then it isn't going to work.
I could act all superior, but I must admit that I don't know the difference either between an admin command console run with "Run as administrator", and one run with a user who has admin rights.