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How to install ABCpdf without Admin Privs?

I have a project in visual studio written in C# that uses ABCpdf to create a PDF page count. I set the install to be instanced as the project is deployed on a server and the project is run without admin rights as our IT department does not want to have a GMSA with admin privs to run it (it runs as a nightly windows task schedule). My issue is the application fails when it tries to generate the PDF due to access denied when installing the license. If I run the application as administrator on the server it runs fine, so it's definitely something to do with no admin rights when installing the license (or other aspects perhaps to run).
My code for installing looks like this:
try { string sResult;
if (WebSupergoo.ABCpdf11.XSettings.InstallRedistributionLicense("<license string>"))
{
sResult = "License Installed Successfully: " + WebSupergoo.ABCpdf11.XSettings.LicenseDescription;
}
else
{
sResult = "License Installation Failed";
}
<does other formatting things for the pdf creation after this in the try catch>
Does anyone know how to get this working without admin rights, or do you know the specific task or registry item it modifies so I can give the GMSA access just to that without full privs? Any help would be awesome. Thanks in advance!

Installing MSI through windows service

I have a strange problem,
I have a WPF application. I have created a windows installer for this and installation will create application shortcut in user's start menu. I'm installing this MSI through windows service. Installation works fine through windows service but it doesnt create shortcut in start menu also i dont see this application under Programs and Features. But if i manually install this everything works fine. Any clue why this is happening ?
Code to execute MSI
Process installProcess = new Process();
//Assign required properties
installProcess.StartInfo.FileName = MSIEXEC;
installProcess.StartInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
installProcess.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
LogManager.Write("Process object is created");
//Create new StringBuilder instance
StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
stringBuilder.Append(SYMBOL_SLASH);
stringBuilder.Append(SYMBOL_INSTALL);
stringBuilder.Append(installerPath);
stringBuilder.Append(SYMBOL_QN);
LogManager.Write("StringBuilder is created: " + stringBuilder.ToString());
installProcess.StartInfo.Arguments = stringBuilder.ToString();
installProcess.Start();

InstallAllUsers property in for MSI was set to false. My windows service was running under Local System account and my machine was logged in with windows authentication under administrator account. So when the installation happened it was assumed that MSI is installed by the user other than who has logged into the machine with windows authentication so it didnt not show up in the start menu and under Programs and Features.
It was not necessary for me to keep the InstallAllUsers to false so simply i made it true which solved my problem.

Application process after msi installer finished is started as SYSTEM user name which sometimes can not create com object

I have a visual studio installer project which installs a C# app, I have a custom action and code to run the process after install is complete.
Let's say the logged in user on windows machine is "john". Now when john runs the msi installer, I check the process in the taskmanager and it shows that msiexec.exe is the process name for installer and it is running as user "john"
The installer completes and runs the install app's process myapp.exe now when I check this process in taskmanager of windows it shows that myapp.exe is running as SYSTEM (which I do know what account is that and why its not running as john)
Problem
When myapp.exe runs as SYSTEM user it can not create com component instance of a component (iTunes in my case) which was already running as user john. If the component was not running then creating isntance of the iTunes is sucessful, otherwise it fails.
Question
So is it possible to make sure when installer runs as john, when it finishes it starts process myapp.exe as john and not as SYSTEM user ? Note that I do not asks user for password during installer.
Code that I run when installer completes
// Event handler for 'Committed' event.
private void MyInstaller_Committed(object sender, InstallEventArgs e)
{
try
{
Directory.SetCurrentDirectory(Path.GetDirectoryName
(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location));
Process.Start(Path.GetDirectoryName(
Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location) + "\\MyApp.exe");
}
catch
{
// Do nothing...
}
}

This most likely happens because you are running your custom action as deferred. i.e. it is running by default under the SYSTEM user account.
A solution is to make sure you launch it immediate, for example you can launch it using a published event on the "Finish" button from the last dialog of the installation. I don't know exactly how to add a published event in VS setup projects, or if it is possible, but you can easily add one in packages built with specialized setup authoring tools.

In the Form_Load event write like this:
string lUserName=Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("USERNAME");
Then instead of getting system user account you will get windows login user name at the time of installing MSI.

Personally I did manage to resolve this by running explorer.exe parameterized with the path to my app's executable:
Process.Start(
new ProcessStartInfo
{
FileName = "explorer.exe",
Arguments = Context.Parameters["target"],
UseShellExecute = true
});

error while installing window service System.Security.SecurityException

I created a window service and to install it I created its deployment project and installed that. After installing I stared it. It successfully started.
Next day I made some modification, and rebuild and reinstalled but now its not installing.
Then I thought its issue with installer, lets create a custom installer for service so that anytime I can update my code.
I created it like this incase if anyone need this for future.
public class MyInstaller : Installer
{
ServiceProcessInstaller spi;
ServiceInstaller si;
public MyInstaller()
{
spi = new ServiceProcessInstaller();
spi.Account = ServiceAccount.LocalSystem;
si = new ServiceInstaller();
si.StartType = ServiceStartMode.Manual;
si.ServiceName = "MyService";
si.DisplayName = "My Service";
si.Description = "service installed from command line";
this.Installers.Add(spi);
this.Installers.Add(si);
}
}
I called it from main method by check the parameter args.
case "-i":
case "-install":
ti = new TransactedInstaller();
mi = new MyInstaller();
ti.Installers.Add(mi);
string logPath = Path.GetDirectoryName(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location) + "\\install.log";
ctx = new InstallContext(logPath, cmdline);
ti.Context = ctx; //.Context ( ctx );
ti.Install(new Hashtable());
break;
Now when I am trying to install. I recevied error System.Security.SecurityException: The source was not found, but some or all event logs could not be searched. Inaccessible logs: Security.
I google it, and come to know service will try to access application log while installing and write log there.
I am not writing any event log. I have my log4net for logging. But still its default behaviour.
How to overcome this issue now? Its not getting installed even I have all permissions.
Thanks

I have found that at times you may need to "Run as Administrator". If you are installing from a command prompt you may need to start that up with "Run as Administrator".

I might have had a separate root cause for the message, but I fixed it by changing my service to run as LocalSystem (which is what I want anyway) instead of LocalService.

I can confirm that under "windows 7 64 bit" AND "Windows 10" you must:
1) run Visual studio command prompt AS ADMINISTRATOR (right click.. Other.. tun as admin)
2) go to "obj" folder where You have the exe.
(cd [all path to \obj] )
3) launch installutil [myservice.exe]
if not run as "admin", it fails even on old win7. :(
note: MSDN does explain it:
(at: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/windows-services/walkthrough-creating-a-windows-service-application-in-the-component-designer)
"To install a Windows service, you must have administrative credentials on the computer on which you're installing it."
:)

Uninstalling with msiexec gets UAC error, even though I have admin rights set

I'm trying to build an updater using msiexec to uninstall a program, then install the newer version.
Here's my code:
command = "/x{[uninstall string here]}";
command += "/qn+ /Le c:\\test\\msilog.txt";
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo("msiexec");
psi.Arguments = command;
//psi.UseShellExecute = true;
//psi.Verb = "runas";
Process.Start(psi);
I have
<requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false" />
set in my manifest, and that is set as the Application's manifest.
When I run this I get the popup box that says "AppSetup failed" and the log file says
Error 1730. You must be an Administrator to remove this application. To remove this application, you can log on as an Administrator, or contact your technical support group for assistance.
IF, however, I run cmd as administrator, and type in
msiexec /x{[uninstall string here]} /qn+ /Le c:\\test\\msilog.txt
It works fine and dandy.
What am I missing here?
(I've also tried uncommenting those two lines above, as that was one way I found to run as Administrator, but it then pops up the UAC dialog before trying to execute, even though /qn is set.)

To elevate a process you need to have the user approve it. If every process could elevate itself without user interaction it would somewhat defeat the purpose of elevation.
I don't know your full scenario, but if you can managed to execute your updater from the Local Service account then this should work without user interaction. A few ways that come to mind are by installing a windows service, Run/RunOnce key of local service account, or using psexec with -s. Of course to accomplish this, you need to have the right permissions yourself on the client machine.
Good luck.
*One more thing:
If you haven't looked into this yet, you can use Windows Installer to update your installation and do not need to write your own "updater." There are 3 different types of updates (small update, minor upgrade, and major upgrade): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370579(VS.85).aspx
A major upgrade uninstalls the previous version and installs the newer version which is most similar to what you've described, though in most cases small updates and minor upgrades are more fitting.