Does writing to the HKCU registry key in Vista/Win7 require adminstrator priviliges?

Question

I have a program which writes to the HKCU registry key during startup. Does this require administrator privileges in Vista and Win7?

Answer 1

By default the answer is no, it doesn't require admin privs. But it is possible to change the permissions on any key, so it's not a guarantee it will work. But by default, assuming no one else is screwing around in the registry where you want to write, it should be ok.

Answer 2

While OmnipotentEntity's answer is mostly correct, there are (at least) two keys in HKCU that a normal user cannot write to in the default system configuration:

• HKCU\Software\Policies
• HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies