Workstation version 6.5.3 on Windows 7 RTM 32-bit will not run a guest except when ran as Administrator

[pointreyes]

Even with me as the Administrator of this OS, I have to Right-click on VMWare Workstation and select "Run as Administrator" in order to get a guest to run. I get the following error otherwise:

The following error occurred when starting VMware Workstation.

W32AuthConnectionLaunch: Reply error "Access to %1 has been restricted by your Administrator by policy rule %2 (fn:CreateProcessAsUser code:786).

".

The last time this happened, I rebooted the host and all was well. Not this time. This was working yesterday. Only a definition update for Windows Defender was installed yesterday and this was during the daytime when the Workstation would have been running.

[LucasAlbers]

I don't think this is a change in behavior with windows 7, it is the nature of uac.

Can you just turn off uac?

[TobiasKracht]

Beginning from Vista Administrator is also a limited account, therefore UAC promts for password. I would you recommend no to turn it off but low down the UAC promt mechanism. You can do it in control panel.

StarWind Software R&D

[pointreyes]

The UAC is by default toned down in Windows 7. With me logged in, I don't have to provide a password to run as administrator. However, there is another problem - I need my daughter to access VMPlayer (the version installed with Workstation) and I'm not about to make her have administrator rights. This method of having her as a general user from the 7th to the 14th of this month worked just fine with pulling up a guest. Now she has to remote desktop into a server (with non-administrator rights) in order to do her home school work. That RDP is more limited because it is a server and I like to keep the software on it limited. Guess I will have her remote into the guest from Windows 7. :smileysilly:

Little bit leary on toning down the UAC since it has been much nicer to work with compared to vista's. I'll see what happens tonight by maybe turning it off temporarily. If turning it off does not solve it then I will know that modifications to the UAC are not necessary.

Technical notes (including some things I forgot to mention):

OS: Windows 7 Professional RTM 32-bit

Software reacting to issue: Latest versions of Workstation and Player will exhibit the same exact error message

Security rights: Does not matter if basic user or administrator user, unless software is ran with the command "Run as Administrator" the ability to pull up a guest is not possible.

Consistency: Occurred once before last week, a reboot "solved" that incident. Now it is consistently providing the error message.

Parental Controls: Have been turned off and error message is still occurring.

Anti-virus: Kaspersky 6 (for Windows 7) for business users (set with general security settings - not paranoid settings)

[Scissor]

What AntiVirus are you running on your Host? Any 3rd party firewalls (Comodo Firewall, perhaps?) or other security products installed?