windows_without_admin

Installing on Windows without admin rights

Both Windows installers need administrator rights: the .exe installer asks for them outright and installs into Program Files, and the .msi installs for every user of the machine. On a company PC where you are a standard user, neither will run.

You don't need them. Every release also comes as a portable archive: a folder you extract anywhere you're allowed to write, and start from a launcher script inside it. It is the same program as the installed one.

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Which file to download

Version	Where	File
0.100.0 (latest stable)	Release 0.100	qelectrotech-0.100.0+git8590-x86-win64-readytouse.7z
0.200.1 (development, Qt 6)	Nightly build	qelectrotech-0.200.1-qt6+git<number>-x86-win64-readytouse.zip

Take the name ending in -readytouse, not Installer_…exe or ….msi.

On the nightly page, files with -qt6 in the name are the current build. Files without it are the last Qt 5 build, kept frozen and no longer updated.

The stable .7z opens in Explorer on recent Windows 11 (23H2 and later). On Windows 10 you need 7-Zip; if you can't install that either, use the nightly .zip, which Windows opens natively.

0.200.1 is a development version. It is what most new work goes into, but it is not tagged as a stable release yet (see issue #1112). If your company only allows released software, use 0.100.0.

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Installing

1. Unblock the download. Right-click the downloaded file → Properties → tick Unblock at the bottom of the General tab → OK. Without this, Windows marks every extracted file as "from the internet" and SmartScreen warns about each one.

2. Extract it to a folder you own, for example:

   %LOCALAPPDATA%\QElectroTech
   

   (paste that into Explorer's address bar; it expands to C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Local\QElectroTech). Documents\QElectroTech or a USB stick work too. Avoid Program Files, which you can't write to.

3. Start QElectroTech with the launcher in the top folder:

   Version	Launcher
   0.100.0	Lancer QET.bat
   0.200.1	Lancer QET_qt6.bat

   ("Lancer" is French for "launch".)

4. Optional: right-click the launcher → Send to → Desktop (create shortcut). That needs no special rights either.

If SmartScreen shows "Windows protected your PC", click More info → Run anyway. The builds are not code-signed, so this warning is expected.

Always use the launcher, not bin\QElectroTech.exe

The launcher tells QElectroTech where everything in the folder is. Run the .exe directly and it can start without its symbol collection, title blocks or translations.

What the launcher does:

Step	Effect
cd to its own folder	The paths below work wherever you extracted it
attrib +r elements/* /S /D	Makes the shipped symbol collection read-only, so it can't be edited by accident
--common-elements-dir=elements/	Shipped symbol collection
--common-tbt-dir=titleblocks/	Shipped title block templates
--lang-dir=lang/	Interface translations
--config-dir=conf/ --data-dir=conf/	Your own symbols, title blocks, logs and config files stay in conf\ inside the folder

Anything you add after the launcher's name is passed on to QElectroTech. So a project file dragged onto the launcher opens in QElectroTech.

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Where things are stored

What	Where	Needs admin?
The program, shipped symbols and title blocks	The folder you extracted	No, it's your folder
Your own symbols, title blocks, logs	conf\ inside that folder	No
Preferences (the Settings dialog)	Registry, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\QElectroTech\QElectroTech	No, it's your own part of the registry
Your projects (.qet)	Wherever you save them	No

Nothing goes into Program Files or the machine-wide part of the registry.

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Opening .qet files by double-click

The archive includes register_filetypes.bat, which makes Windows open .qet projects, .elmt symbols and .titleblock templates in this copy of QElectroTech when you double-click them.

It registers them for your account only, which needs no admin rights. This works in builds newer than the git10275 nightly (PR #1149, merged 29 September 2026). In 0.100.0 and in nightlies up to git10275 the script is broken; see Older downloads below.

1. Run register_filetypes.bat from the top folder.
2. It should say "Les associations de fichier ont bien ete crees." ("the file associations were created"). Press a key to close it.

The associations point at this folder. If you move or rename it, run register_filetypes.bat again.

Older downloads: in 0.100.0 and nightlies up to git10275, the script doesn't work for a standard user. In the 0.200.1 nightlies it stops at once; in 0.100.0 it tries to write to the machine-wide part of the registry. With those, open a project like this instead:

• use File → Open inside QElectroTech, or
• drag the .qet file onto the launcher (Lancer QET_qt6.bat or Lancer QET.bat).

Don't use Open with → Choose another app → bin\QElectroTech.exe: that starts the program without the launcher, so it can come up without its collection (see above).

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Updating

1. Extract the new version to a new folder, next to the old one.
2. Copy the old folder's conf\ into the new one, so your own symbols and title blocks come with you. Preferences are in the registry, so they carry over by themselves.
3. If you registered file associations, run register_filetypes.bat in the new folder.
4. Delete the old folder when you're happy.

Moving to a different computer? The preferences stay behind in the old computer's registry. Save them first with Settings → Save settings as..., and load the file on the new one with Load settings... — see Saving and loading settings.

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Removing it

1. If you registered file associations, double-click qet_uninstall_file_associations.reg in the folder and confirm. (In builds newer than git10275 this also removes the per-user entries.)
2. Delete the folder.
3. Optional: remove your preferences. Run regedit and delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\QElectroTech. If your company blocks regedit, you can leave the key: it's only settings.

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When it still won't run

Symptom	Cause	What to do
"Windows protected your PC"	The build isn't code-signed	More info → Run anyway, or unblock the download before extracting
"This app has been blocked by your system administrator", or nothing happens	The company allows only approved programs (AppLocker or similar)	Only your IT department can allow it. Point them at the release page.
The symbol collection is empty	QElectroTech was started as bin\QElectroTech.exe	Start it with the launcher
register_filetypes.bat says "…Lancer QET.bat n'a pas été trouvé"	Bug in nightlies up to git10275	Use a newer nightly, or open files as described above
Symbols in deeply nested folders show no name or thumbnail, or a script reports a symbol "would collide with a different element"	The full path to the symbol file is 260 characters or longer	Use a build from 2 October 2026 or later; see Long folder paths below

Long folder paths

Windows traditionally limits a file's full path to 260 characters, and a symbol collection several folders deep, inside an already long folder such as C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Local\QElectroTech\…, can pass that. Older builds then found the symbol file but could not read it: it appeared without its name or thumbnail, and a script adding it was told it would collide with another element.

Builds from 2 October 2026 onwards read symbol files in a way that has no such limit (PR #1243). A symbol that still cannot be read is now reported as unreadable, with its full path and its length, rather than as a collision.

The same builds also tell Windows that QElectroTech handles long paths (PR #1244). That only matters on computers where Windows' own long-path support is switched on (LongPathsEnabled in the registry, a machine-wide setting that needs an administrator); there, other files with long paths open too. Without it, keep the path of the extracted folder short, for example C:\QET.

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See also

• Downloads — every platform and package
• FAQ — general questions
• Preferences reference — what the settings stored in the registry control
• CLI Reference — the command-line options the launcher uses