Problem installing PA2

TeetimeNC wrote on 11/1/2010, 8:01 AM
This may be something weird with my PC's configuration because I have the exact same problem with the Mercali 2 installation. I installed PA2 and Mercali 2 on my Vista 64bit PC with Vegas Pro 10 64bit. Neither plugin works in Vegas 10 unless I am logged in as Admin.

I have an Admin account and a "Jerry" account. I always install from the "Jerry" account and Vista CAC asks me the Admin password to allow the install. PA2 ( and Mercali 2) seemed to install fine. However, PA2 does not show up in the Vegas 10 extensions list when I am logged in as "Jerry" It does show up when I am logged in as "Admin" Mercali 2 does show up in the FX list but when I try to analyze a clip it can't find the render templates.

I see that both PA2 and Mercali 2 installs create a folder under Admin's appdata roaming folder. I copied these folders to Jerry's appdata roaming folder but still no cigar.

I have been using this install approach for at least two years and have never experienced a problem until now. Any ideas?

/jerry

Comments

JohnnyRoy wrote on 11/1/2010, 7:46 PM
> I see that both PA2 and Mercali 2 installs create a folder under Admin's appdata roaming folder. I copied these folders to Jerry's appdata roaming folder but still no cigar.

You have correctly identified the problem. What is happening is Windows is not granting the current user admin privileges, it actually switched to the admin user account so all the personal preferences go to the wrong user (i.e., the admin and not the user!).

The fix is to make Jerry an admin and install Mercalli 2 and Production Assistant 2 and then make Jerry an regular user again. This will establish the personal files under Jerry's account (like Windows should have in the first place)

The way that Vegas works, it looks under the current user for command extensions and since only admins can install software so you need to make the current use an admin in order to install them properly.

~jr
TeetimeNC wrote on 11/2/2010, 6:19 AM
Thanks JR. That worked for me after some minor drama. When I changed the "Jerry" account from standard to admin and attempted to log in I received this from Vista: "The User Profile Service failed the logon. The User Profile failed to load." Apparently this is a somewhat common problem in Vista that a registry hack fixes. After applying the fix I was able to reinstall PA2 and Mercali V2. Then I change "Jerry " back to a standard account and both work properly. Thanks for your recommendation.

One thing I am still curious about - I also have the Vegasaur plugin. When I installed it after installing Vegas 10a, it DID show up in my extensions list and works properly. This was installed with the standard "Jerry" account. It dis properly install user preferences under "Jerry". Why the difference? At first I thought maybe it was because it is a 64bit plugin, but so is Mercali. Oh well, at least all is working now. Thanks again.

/jerry
JohnnyRoy wrote on 11/2/2010, 7:53 AM
> One thing I am still curious about - I also have the Vegasaur plugin. When I installed it after installing Vegas 10a, it DID show up in my extensions list and works properly. This was installed with the standard "Jerry" account. It dis properly install user preferences under "Jerry". Why the difference?

Where did Vegasaur install it's extension? It may have installed everything under %AppData% or "My Documents" in which case this would have worked. We install under "Program Files" like you are supposed to. Users are not supposed to be able to install software. That's the whole point of not making them an administrator!

I assume you going through the pain of using a limited user account because you are concerned about security. You should be mad that Vegasaur circumvented that security and allowed a regular use to install software. At that point, why even use a limited user account... just make everyone administrators.

~jr
TeetimeNC wrote on 11/2/2010, 9:05 AM
JR, you are correct - I operate under the standard "Jerry" account for security reasons. I have UAC enabled which allows me to install software from the standard account as long as I can provide admin authentication when prompted to do so. This has worked properly for the two years I have had this PC... until I installed Mercali 2 and PA2.

When I installed Vegasaur it was from the standard account. With the proper admin authentication via the UAC prompt, it installed the plugin in c:\program files\Vegasuar\1.0. It installed the user files in c:\users\jerry\appdata\roaming\vegasur\1.0.

As far as I can tell Vegasaur isn't breaching security. I install all new Windows updates as they become available so it is certainly possible something has changed in Windows to cause this problem between the Vegasaur install, and the PA2/Mercali installs. Vegasaur was installed several weeks before PA2 and Mercali.

/jerry

JohnnyRoy wrote on 11/2/2010, 6:37 PM
> When I installed Vegasaur it was from the standard account. With the proper admin authentication via the UAC prompt, it installed the plugin in c:\program files\Vegasuar\1.0. It installed the user files in c:\users\jerry\appdata\roaming\vegasur\1.0.

Hmmm... that's very interesting. That means there must be a way around this. I'll look into it further. Thanks for bringing it up.

~jr