The application stops due to an unforeseen situation, for example an error in the database.

It turns out that the application tries to write to various files that are installed in Program Files, which of course normal users do not have access to. Obviously giving the entire userbase rights to modify things in this way was out of the question, so we decided to try some other methods. We have a ’software’ share on one of the servers for software that can be run directly from an installation directory, so we tried that. The same problem existed, as users were still not able to write to the install directory.

In the end, our solution was to create a new share, to which users have write (update) access, as we did not want to compromise the existing software setup, when everything was running smoothly. Once we had shared the software in a user writable directory (and published it in the form of a shortcut on the default desktop), everything worked!

It would be nice to see an update to the software to allow it to run without administrator rights, as I am sure there are situtations where a solution like ours would not be feasible.

Update 24/03/2009:
We have found that although this solves the problem of running the software, it does not allow you to run more than one instance at a time – useless for a network application like this one. The software must be putting a lock on its files, very annoying!

FATAL: DcPromo_JoinDomain: The server was not promoted to a domain controller.

The solution was surprisingly simple. An active network connection is required to start the setup, however I had disconnected the NIC during setup. Bad move, this causes the setup to bail out. The solution, of course, is to make sure the network card remians connected for the duration of the setup.