To all Vista Adventurers:

The real issue is that, even as an Admin user, you don't have full admin rights in Vista. When it comes to any sort of registry updates, you need Secret Squirrel Admin rights--something no user gets by default.

There's a handy menu option on most programs. You can right click and choose Run as Administrator. Don't be confused. Even if you are an administrator, the above option grants you FULL administrator rights. Welcome to the wonderful world of UAC (User Account Control).

So, when you want to run an installation that you think will touch the registry, run it with the above command. Alternatively, you can run any command line in Secret Squirrel Admin mode from the Start menu using CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER. If you have a program (such as Visual Studio) that always needs to run in Secret Squirrel Admin mode, then do the following:

1. Create a shortcut.
2. Right click it and choose properties
3. Select the Compatability tab
4. Check the "Run the program as an administrator" option

Also, you will always get the Cancel/Allow message when running in Secret Squirrel Admin mode.

Oh, and there is one other option. You could disable the UAC altogether. It's not recommended because you system becomes "less secure" or something. Personally, I turned it off. But I needed to because I am a programmer and I couldn't debug applications with it on.

To disable UAC:

1. Control Panel (Normal view, not Classic View)
2. User Accounts
3. User Accounts (yes, twice)
4. Select the "Turn User Account Control on or off" option

Besides the constant "Are you sure you want to run this program?", "Please enter an administrator password" and "You have moved the mouse, are you sure you wish to continue this action" messages, I've had no problems running OI on Vista with a standard user account.

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