Windows Server 2003 and not allowed to install application as administrator

Today I wanted to install VMWare Server on a Window Server 2003 machine. While running the installer I was prompted with an alert that said “System Administrator has set policies to prevent this installation.”. Since I was doing the installation as a system administrator I thought that it might be some evil trick of MS to not enable VMWare Virtualization on Windows…

Turns out that there are more hidden “features” to Windows then one knows. After looking around for some time for a solution I found one deep buried down in a forum. So, to save myself (and hopefully others) some sanity I post the solution here.

The magic is that there has to be a software policy in place in order to install an application as administrator (thought an administrator should be able to install application after all, isn’t it? Guess, this is Windows logic).

Bring up the “Domain Security Policy” (or Local Security Policy)

Click on the “Software Restriction Policy”. On the right side you either see a list with items or a white page with “No software restriction policies…”. If that is the case, the right-click on “Software Restriction Policy” and choose “New Software Restriction Policy”.

Then double click on “Enforcement”. In the window that opens mark the radio button that says “All users except local administrators”. Hit “OK” when done.

Close the window and reboot your server or simply issue “gpupdate” with “Start -> Run…”.