I just purchased an HP G6Z laptop that was assembled in China. The description reads “Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.” My only complaint to date is when I loaded an instructional CD, I was unable to open it because I got the following error message, “Error executing file. Setup.exe the requested operation requires elevation.” When I searched your website, all indicators suggest that I have a Windows Vista program. All my paperwork, however, indicates that it’s genuine Windows 7. Is it possible? I’ve just started researching this and have not yet contacted HP.
In this excerpt from Answercast #17, I look at an elevation error that is common in both Windows 7 and Vista machines, and point in the direction of a cure.
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Is elevation just in Vista?
No, you’ve got Windows 7. The program giving the error is not specific to Vista or Windows 7.
Your operating system, I’m sure is, Windows 7. If you look at your computer properties, it will fire up right there and tell you what version of the operating system you’re running.
Elevation error
The elevation is just an error message and that’s all it really is. The fact that my articles only referenced to Windows Vista means that those articles were probably written when Vista was the only operating system around requiring elevation. The concept still applies: you probably need to run the setup program as administrator. Or run it from a command prompt that you started as administrator.
Elevate to Administrator
I realize that many people probably have your account set up to be administrator, but in reality, the security model of both Vista and Windows 7 restricts your account by default from truly being the full administrator.
It’s a security thing. It prevents random software from doing administrative-level things without your knowledge. In other words, it protects you from various forms of malware.
So what you need to do is run the setup program (or a command prompt) that would start the setup program as administrator. At that point, you won’t get the elevation; that’s the elevation that it’s talking about.
- It’s saying you need to run this with permissions elevated to the next level: the next level being administrator.
I have an article on that. It’s called “Why is Windows telling me I need to be administrator when I am?“
That discusses exactly this scenario and I’m pretty positive that’s what you’re seeing.
Next from Answercast #17 – Why is my important folder suddenly gone and not in the recycle bin?
