When an application launches on Microsoft Windows 10/8.1/7, the User Account Control (UAC) security component determines whether to grant the application administrative privileges. A user that logs into Windows as a standard user can write only to specific locations on disk and in the registry. Standard user is the default login.

Microsoft recommends that applications run without requiring administrator privileges. If you design applications that do not attempt to access protected areas of the operating system, all users can run the application as intended without requiring administrator privileges. You can also include manifests to specify the execution level the application requires.

When an application does not specify an execution level in a manifest, the UAC launches the application with the standard or administrator privileges of the user. With standard privileges, the system uses virtualization to redirect any read and write operations for system files and registry keys to a per-user location instead of the actual system copy of the file or registry key. Do not create applications that rely on virtualization to perform these types of administrative operations.

The default TestStand User Interface application binary files include manifests that instruct the UAC to execute the application without virtualization and without requiring administrative privileges. With LabVIEW, you can specify a custom manifest for built applications. With LabWindows/CVI, you can specify a manifest for built applications. When you build the application, refer to the documentation for the application development environment you used for more information about how to include a manifest.