Possible way for User Installation? (2024)

Hello,

is there any way to install/update Notepad++ only for the current active user without Elevation/UAC Prompt?
The user should’nt need admin rights for the installation and auto-updates.

@Sebastian said in Possible way for User Installation?:

The user should’nt need admin rights for the installation and auto-updates.

That seems like your opinion.
If you are in a corporate environment, the administrators of your networking may (and probably do) disagree.

@Sebastian-Urhausen ,

If the program is installed in the Program Files hierarchy in Windows, then Windows is in charge of deciding whether or not it needs Elevation/UAC Prompt.

1. If you disable UAC Prompt in Windows, it should stop pestering you about it. But if you leave UAC enabled in Windows, then Windows will prompt you during installation or upgrade.

2. If you have the ability to change the permissions of the C:\Program Files\Notepad++ (or equivalent) folder using Windows Explorer Right Click > Properties > Security, and you Edit either the “Users” entry to allow Full Control, or Add your user with Full Control. After that, Windows shouldn’t ask about UAC anymore when editing that folder.

But both options I presented assume you have control of your system. As Alan said, if you are behind corporate IT, whether or not they allow such changes is up to them, not to us.

But in the end, it’s Windows settings which control this, not Notepad++ itself.

Thank you for the fast reply.

would it be possible to install in Notepad in %Appdata% folder of the current user and the problem should be gone as the current user has full control over the installation. May that work even for updating the software?

@Sebastian ,

would it be possible to install in Notepad in %Appdata% folder of the current user

By default, no. %AppData% is for data, not for applications themselves.

But when installing, you can choose any directory you want – you don’t have to accept the default Program Files location. And if the installer fights you, you can use the portable/zip edition and unzip it wherever you want. (This is how I “install” Notepad++ on my work machine. I have customized my file associations in regedit to point to c:\usr\local\apps\notepad++\notepad++.exe , which is in a folder where I have full write permission without UAC.)

@PeterJones said in Possible way for User Installation?:

@Sebastian ,

would it be possible to install in Notepad in %Appdata% folder of the current user

By default, no. %AppData% is for data, not for applications themselves.

But when installing, you can choose any directory you want – you don’t have to accept the default Program Files location. And if the installer fights you, you can use the portable/zip edition and unzip it wherever you want. (This is how I “install” Notepad++ on my work machine. I have customized my file associations in regedit to point to c:\usr\local\apps\notepad++\notepad++.exe , which is in a folder where I have full write permission without UAC.)

The installer/updater is the key problem. I’ve downloaded the zipped portable version, extracted it into my user folder and tried to update the portable version. When trying to install the latest version it prompts again for Creds. Do you have any idea if there is any possibility that the user may be in control to do the update himself?

@Sebastian

If you want to update the portable version, can’t you just go out and get a newer portable version, unzip that?

I mean, okay, you have to copy over some .xml files from the older one to the newer, but…

What real advantage is there to the installer/updater? Except to doing it without putting any thinking into it, but for my paranoid self I don’t trust installers to not lose old settings. In other words, I’ll put thought/effort into it to protect what I’ve got.

[Plus, I’ve heard some stuff about N++ installer/updater losing data if you don’t save your files to true disk files and an update is done. I don’t really have facts on that though because I don’t pay close enough attention to some stuff that I don’t do on my own setup. The key part here is that I don’t allow unnamed documents to hang around too long, and I advise other users to do same.]

@Sebastian said in Possible way for User Installation?:

tried to update the portable version

Once you invoke the updater, it is trying to do things the installed way, not the portable way. If you don’t want the installer running, don’t use the “update” command.

When I want a new version of the portable, it’s easiest to unzip it to a new folder, then do folder renames so that the newer portable ends up in the same directory where my association points. Alternately, you can copy files from one portable folder to another – I know there are other discussions on this forum that talk about what files you need to copy directly, and what files are best to compare an manually merge: search for “portable update” or similar phrasing.