Zotero 7: Zotero experienced an error updating your document

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  • If you set it back to a higher level and restart, does it once again return to Never Notify? Upon restart do you get an UAC prompt for some process asking for Admin rights?
  • @adomasven
    I changed it back to "Notify me only when apps...".
    I restarted the PC.
    I checked - it stayed as "Notify me only when apps..."

    I tried running Notepad as admin and despite "Notify me only when apps..." being set, it did not ask me for Admin rights. However, as I stated in one of the first posts, I *am* the Administrator. So that's as it should be, right?
  • Even admin accounts run all applications without administrative privileges (that allow to change system config, files and functionality). An application can request to elevate itself for admin privileges during runtime, or you can run the application as administrator. If UAC is enabled, you should get a prompt:

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u2735919/h1ibmiyjc3aba4tthnjx.png

    If you open Process Explorer again, is explorer.exe as well as other apps still running with high integrity level? Generally in Process Explorer there should be no more than a few processes running at high level. Everything else should be at medium or low, and a bunch of system processes should show the Integrity Level field blank.
  • @aszala
    However, as I stated in one of the first posts, I *am* the Administrator.
    Are you saying that you use the default Windows Administrator account (which is disabled upon install and needs to be manually enabled)? Or a normal user account with account type Administrator?
  • @adomasven Yes, I am using the default Windows Administrator account, which is disabled upon installation and needs to be manually enabled.

    Regarding your previous post about the Process Explorer, I will check that tomorrow. Apologies for the slow response; somehow I did not get a notification about the message despite being tagged there.
  • OK, that was key — we can reproduce this when running Windows with the Administrator account (which generally is a bad idea, for what it's worth).

    Could you try the latest Zotero beta and let us know if that fixes it for you?
  • @dstillman
    UAC is still on the "Notify me only..." level.

    1. I uninstalled old Zotero 7.0 (I kept my settings while uninstalling).
    2. Installed the beta you provided (64-bit Installer).

    And...

    3. "Zotero could not find a running Word instance."
    4. I did Settings -> Cite -> Reinstall Microsoft Word Add-in
    5. "Zotero could not find a running Word instance."
    6. I tried running Zotero in Win 8 compatibility again...
    7. It worked!

    So, despite using the Beta, I had to fix it with Win 8 compatibility mode again.
  • @aszala could you download the Zip version, extract it somewhere and see if that one works without compatibility mode?
  • @adomasven
    1. I did not uninstall anything; I downloaded the Windows 64-bit ZIP.
    2. I unzipped the content (C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\Zotero-7.0.3-beta.1+2065a60b7_win-x64\Zotero_win-x64)
    3. I ran zotero.exe from that catalog (no config needed; it pulled my library from somewhere).
    4. It works without the Win8 trick!
  • Ok, excellent. Thanks for helping us troubleshoot this, this fix will work for any users seeing this issue. The installer version would also have worked without compatibility mode. Restarting it would have been enough.

    For posterity, you should know that running Windows as an Administrator security-wise is extremely dangerous. If any software you run has any security holes an attacker could use it to gain access to your entire system without you knowing it and e.g. be able to monitor everything you do even only if you ran the compromised software once. You should create a regular Administrator account on your machine and use that instead. That way any time any software wants to perform administrative actions (which could potentially lead to such a vulnerability) you will get an UAC prompt like the one in the screenshot above. If an attacker uses a vulnerability in some software you run, it will be much harder for them to gain access to your entire system without you knowing it.
  • @adomasven Thank you a lot! :) Let me know if I can help with anything else.

    Regarding running Windows as an Administrator, I intend to get rid of Windows soon. Thank you a lot for the security tips, though!
  • Zotero 7.0.3 is out now with a fix. Thanks for your help!
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