Working With TestComplete Under User Accounts

Applies to TestComplete 14.30, last modified on November 21, 2019

TestComplete works both under administrator and non-administrator (limited) user accounts. You need administrator permissions to install TestComplete, but you can install it for any user on the computer. To do this, select “Install this application for anyone who uses this computer” during TestComplete installation.

Non-administrator accounts may have limited access to the file system, Windows registry and running applications - as set by your system administrator. Your user account permissions determine what you can and cannot do with TestComplete. Keep in mind the following limitations when using TestComplete under a non-administrator account.

Desktop Application Testing
  • By default, the members of the Users group cannot work with processes created by other users.

  • TestComplete launches tested applications under the same account under which it is running. So, your tested application will have the same permissions as this account.

  • To test an application running under another user account, you must launch TestComplete as Administrator, and run the application in the RunAs mode from TestComplete. For more information, see Testing Applications Running Under Another User Account.

File System Access
  • Limited user accounts may have no read or write permissions for some folders. For example, by default, the members of the Users group have no write permissions for the Program Files folder. TestComplete and your tests cannot access or change the files and folders for which your account has no permissions.

Registry Access
  • Users may have no permissions to access some registry keys. For example, by default, the members of the Users group cannot write to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry key.

    For example, the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE node is used to register COM objects. If your tests do this, you need to run TestComplete as Administrator.

  • If you reboot the computer as part of your test, TestComplete saves the domain name, user name and password for logging on in the following registry key:

    HKEY_USERS\{USER_SID}\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

    TestComplete removes this data from the registry once it is launched after the restart. However, if the specified user account does not have permissions for the above-mentioned registry key, the logon parameters will remain in the registry and will be used at the next Windows startup.

See Also

Configuring Your System

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