Paint Shop Pro as non-admin user

Starting Paint Shop Pro 4 as a non-admin user under Windows XP yields the following message:

Failed to update the system registry,please try using REGEDIT.


Apparently similar results are experienced under Vista (because UAC essentially equates to running as a non-admin user).

The problem is fixed under PSP 12 -- but that doesn't help you if you're running an older version.

The problem arises because PSP tries to update a couple of registry entries in the system registry. You can fix it by simply granting "Full control" to the Users group for the following registry keys:

  • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{10722D20-FD67-11CE-A6F7-444553540000}
  • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PSP.BrowserFile
  • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PSP.Image

The steps:

  • Start regedit
  • Navigate to the key
  • Right click the key, click "Permissions..."
  • Add Users if it's not already there.
  • Tick "Full control"
  • Click "Advanced"
  • Tick "Replace permissions on all child objects".

Repeat for each key above.