If while installing a new software on Windows, you receive an Access is Denied
error message, this article may help you in trouble-shooting the issue. This is one of the most common error we get, when we try to install any application on Windows 10/8/7. There are a few reasons why we may get to see this error message. In this article we’ll discuss a few tips to resolve this problem.
Access is Denied error while installing software
Scenario 1:
One of the common reason is lack of administration rights. If you are logged in as Standard user, the installation will give you this error. So make sure you’re logged in as a Local Administrator. When I mean Local administrator, I mean that to say that you need to login as Local administrator – not Domain administrator. Because even if you are a Domain administrator, sometimes Domain policies will restrict access to certain locations. For instance, if you are installing Microsoft SQL Server, it’s highly recommend that you ensure that you are logged into the machine as Local administrator, otherwise you might get a lot of error message including Microsoft SQL Service Fails to start.
Scenario 2:
The other most common reason is User Account Control. Sometimes UAC will restrict you from accessing certain file locations or registry locations. The best practice is to always right-click on the setup and click on “Run as administrator”. By doing so, setup will elevate with full administrator rights. In some cases however, we may need to disable UAC temporarily, until you finish the installation.
To do so, go to Start under search type in “UAC”.
Click on “Change User Account Control settings”.
Make sure you drag the bar all the way to “Never Notify” then click OK and reboot the system and try to install it again. Do remember to change back the UAC settings, after you have completed the installation.
Scenario 3:
If it does not help, you may next try to disable your security software – because this software can be very tricky sometimes. It may restrict access to a specific path or specific registry location. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to find it out. So it’s better to disable the security software completely and then try to install the software. Again, do remember to re-enable your security software, once your installation completes successfully.
Scenario 4:
There are some common locations which sometimes we are denied permissions. So far, the locations I have seen are Temp and Installer folder. So go to C:\Windows\Installer and %temp% and Take Ownership to these folders. Then try again.
Scenario 5:
The last steps you could try is to Enable Built-in administrator account:
To do so:
1) Click the Windows Start button and type in CMD.
2) Right-click on CMD and click on Run as administrator.
3) Command prompt will open up then type in
net user administrator /active:yes
Hit Enter. You will get a message “Command ran successfully”.
Type net user administrator <Password>, and then press ENTER.
Please replace the <Password> tag with your passwords, which you want to set to an administrator account.
To disable the administrator account net user administrator /active:no
If nothing works try to re-download the application to make sure the download file is not corrupted. If you need further help, please post in our Windows forums. We’ll be more than happy to help you out.
How to open an encrypted file if Access is Denied in Windows may also interest you.
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