Run Matlab without Admin rights?

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A M
A M on 25 Mar 2015
I'm trying to install Matlab with a trial license on Win7 SP1. UAC is set to default. It seems impossible to run Matlab without Admin rights, not only can I not activate Matlab unless run as Admin (Error1731), I also have to run it as Admin after activation. Is there any way to install it so that a user can run it? It seems ridiculous that the Admin password is needed to run the program, I can't give everyone who uses the program Admin rights?
  4 Comments
Alex
Alex on 3 Apr 2015
I have the same problem as A M: Company policy says "not Administrator", so I can't run Matlab. Fail.
Image Analyst
Image Analyst on 3 Apr 2015
I know for a fact that I do not have to "run it as Admin after activation". See my properties:
See? The "Run as administrator" checkbox is unchecked.
I don't recall if I need to grant administrator privileges during installation since I only do that twice a year. Anyway, my answer below remains the same for you as it was for A M - contact installation support at the Mathworks.

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Answers (3)

Marc Jakobi
Marc Jakobi on 10 Nov 2017
This thread is a bit old, but I had the same problem and just found a solution. It's related to this this thread.
When you activated Matlab, you specified your administrator account. As a result, the license file is saved to the administrator account, not your user account. Every time you start Matlab, it can't find a license file and starts the Matlab Activator (which requires administrator privileges).
To solve this problem, activate Matlab and when prompted to put in the account name, replace the administrator account name with your user account.
  1 Comment
Jeffrey Brodhecker
Jeffrey Brodhecker on 20 Jan 2021
Thank you very much. This is the correct answer. side note - There will also be a 'warning' type message that comes up when you try to change the name, but just put the correctly spelt name of the account you are trying to run it on and it will be fine

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Image Analyst
Image Analyst on 25 Mar 2015
Edited: Image Analyst on 25 Mar 2015
We don't really answer licensing or installation questions here. I would Contact Support Installation Help . I can say, though, that I don't have to run MATLAB as an administrator to get it to launch.

Jan
Jan on 3 Apr 2015
On my Windows 7 computer Matlab runs fine without admin privileges. It was useful to gain writing privileges to [matlabroot]\toolbox\local, such that pathdef can be adjusted. But the rest runs smoothly as user.

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