How to create registry key in HKLM using Inno Setup without requiring Administrator permissions

Question

I am developing desktop application using C# and creating setup using Inno setup compiler.

Let me explain application functionality,

1. I have created application Setup using Inno Setup all user (i.e. application can install in admin/non admin PC).

   //all user
   PrivilegesRequired=lowest
   

2. While installing application, I want to create registry key in HKLM. For this I have added registry key in Inno Setup script as below

   [Registry]
   Root: HKLM; Subkey: "SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\TestKey"; Permissions: users-modify; \
       Flags: uninsdeletekey createvalueifdoesntexist; ValueType: string; \
       ValueName: "SOAPAddress"; ValueData: "ABC"
   

3. While installing application registry key not created its throws below exception

   ---------------------------
   Error
   ---------------------------
   Error creating registry key:
   
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\TestKey
   
   RegCreateKeyEx failed; code 5.
   
   Access is denied.
   
   Click Retry to try again, Ignore to proceed anyway, or Abort to cancel installation.
   

Please help me, How can I create registry key in HKLM using Inno Setup compiler.

I had checked in VS2010 its create registry key but setup can't run non-admin PC.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

You need Administrator privileges to write to HKLM. So you cannot use the PrivilegesRequired=lowest.

And creating an user-writable key in HKLM is a bad practice.

You cannot have an installer that can be run by a non-admin user, yet be able to write to HKLM. That's a basic principle of Windows security.

---

It's not really clear what you mean by "application can install in Admin/non admin PC", but maybe you are actually looking for this:
Make Inno Setup installer request privileges elevation only when needed.