Can I run RegAsm without being Administrator?

Question

My coworker is trying to register some COM components (which I wrote) via RegAsm.exe and it says he needs Administrator privileges. His account has admin privileges but he is not logged in as Administrator. Is there a way to use his regular user account and succeed at this task?

Answer 1

I think this question belongs elsewhere, but Windows uses least privilege so if he is a user that is both a normal user and an Administrator than he gets normal user privileges. Use runas to make this work or right click the item and "run as administrator"

Answer 2

Admin privileges are required to allow Regasm.exe to update the registry. If this is a UAC restriction then create a shortcut on the desktop for cmd.exe and check the "Run this program as an administrator" checkbox. Or change this setting on the Visual Studio Command Prompt shortcut, that's easier.

Answer 3

Why don't you use registration free com? Its only been supported since 2003 and obviates the need for UAC / administrative access to install COM components.

With RegFree COM you can just bundle the COM dlls with the application that uses them as a private assembly - but that doesn't mean they can't be properly installed - either in the registry or in WinSxS by the final deployment install.exe/msi

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Subtext wrt the actual query: no - COM registration is in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key that always requires administrative access.

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I lied: Actually you can. If you create a application with no manifest at all, Windows deduces that its an XP era application that expects administrative access to run and will activate a compatibility mode that, amongst other features, redirects write access to HKLM to a writable location under HKCU. So the COM component registration "succeeds" - but is registered for the current user only.

Im not sure why the ability to register for just the current account isn't supported generally outside the compatibility framework.