Audacity Forum

I set "Audacity Properties /Compatibility /Privilege Level /[ticked] Run this program as administrator"
and when I tried the Portable Settings procedure I DID NOT have the error messages but all my settings were defaulted - and when I deleted the Portable Settings folder all went back to normal - my settings, shortcuts ... as well as the error messages - even with me now running things as administrator.

Not sure what to do at this point. What advantage is there to running as administrator? Is it best to always run as administrator? When I do run as administrator before Audacity opens I am prompted with the "Do you want to allow...unknown publisher to make changes to this computer?" question.

Should I leave privileges as administrator then again create the Portable Settings for problem plugins and just reset all my personal preferences/settings --- to fix the error messages? And would this be the only advantage, not getting the error messages?

UPDATE: Using Audacity as administrator I've just noticed I can not drop and drag a file in (to Audacity) so I am going to tick off the administrator privilege option at this point - as it seems only to be a hinderance - that is not providing any kind of benefit.

Black Dog Bluez wrote:I set "Audacity Properties /Compatibility /Privilege Level /[ticked] Run this program as administrator"
and when I tried the Portable Settings procedure I DID NOT have the error messages but all my settings were defaulted

That is what adding an empty Portable Settings is supposed to do. It gives you a clean set of preferences. But what happens in that case if you change the settings in the plugins that give you the problem, then run them again? They should not then give you any error.

Black Dog Bluez wrote:and when I deleted the Portable Settings folder all went back to normal - my settings, shortcuts ... as well as the error messages - even with me now running things as administrator.

Running as administrator is not relevant to the problem of your old settings in AppData/Roaming/Audacity. I believe for whatever reason you have never managed to clear that folder out properly - perhaps because you clear it out while Audacity is still running. You should clear it our after exiting Audacity.

Black Dog Bluez wrote:Not sure what to do at this point. What advantage is there to running as administrator? Is it best to always run as administrator? When I do run as administrator before Audacity opens I am prompted with the "Do you want to allow...unknown publisher to make changes to this computer?" question.

That is I presume because you are running as a standard user and so Windows User Account Control asks if you really want to temporarily elevate to Administrator when you launch Audacity.

Black Dog Bluez wrote:Using Audacity as administrator I've just noticed I can not drop and drag a file in (to Audacity)

Yes this is expected if you are dragging a file from an application that is only running as a standard user - you do not have permission to interact with Audacity running at administrator privilege. If you run the application that you are dragging the file from as administrator then you will be able to drag the file into Audacity running as administrator.

Black Dog Bluez wrote:I am going to tick off the administrator privilege option at this point - as it seems only to be a hinderance - that is not providing any kind of benefit.

There is no general benefit in running Audacity as administrator while you are logged in as a standard user. I suggested it merely to demonstrate to you that the launching Audacity with non-existent configuration files will stop the plugin errors.

Black Dog Bluez wrote:Should I leave privileges as administrator then again create the Portable Settings for problem plugins and just reset all my personal preferences/settings --- to fix the error messages?

You could try right-click over the Portable Settings folder, click the "Security" tab, then click the "Edit" button. In the "Group or user names:" box, select the "Users" line and then in the "Permissions for Users" box, put a checkmark in the "Full control" box under "Allow" and click OK. You will be prompted for the admin password when you do this.

If that works, you should be able to launch Audacity with "Portable Settings" present but without running Audacity as administrator. This should be un-necessary. You should just be able to exit Audacity then delete the folder Users\<your user name>\AppData\Roaming\Audacity\ and achieve the same effect of starting with fresh settings as you do by adding a Portable Settings folder into "Program Files (x86)/Audacity".


Gale