Single user install without needing administrator privileges?

[Pingviinituutti]

Hi all!

After searching the forums and such without a specific response to if pdf Tools could be installed for a single user without admin privileges (let's say, under AppData/Local/ or such), maybe this post has better success.

The .msi installer seems to always ask for admin privileges at a certain point and skipping the installation of components that one would expect to require admin privileges (like the printer driver) doesn't seem to skip the admin privilege check.

Running the .msi install via command line also fails when admin credentials are needed... (I ran

Code: Select all

msiexec.exe /I C:\path\to\installer\ToolsV10.x64.msi /quiet /passive INSTALLLOCATION="C:\custom\location\in\user\folder\pdfExchange\" ADDLOCAL="F_Updater" /lx log.txt /qn

to try a bare minimum installation which failed)

Therefore, is there any way to install pdf Tools as a single user?

Best regards,
Pingviinituutti

[Dimitar - PDF-XChange]

Hello Pingviinituutti,

Thank you for your detailed post.

I’m not sure this is possible, as each installation typically requires administrative privileges—even when attempting a minimal install or excluding components like the printer driver.

The installer is designed to perform system-level actions that generally cannot be bypassed by installing under user-level directories such as AppData\Local.

Unless using a portable version ( which PDF Tools does not have), administrative rights will likely remain a requirement.

Best regards,

[Pingviinituutti]

Hi!

Thank you for the response!

Well, that's a shame. Would be great if pdf Tools had a portable version!

All the best,
Pingviinituutti

[Dimitar - PDF-XChange]

Hello Pingviinituutti,

Would be great if pdf Tools had a portable version!

Indeed.

Unfortunately, it requires some of its components to be installed.

Regards.