Visual Studio Tools need administrator privileges on Windows 8

I am using Windows 8.1 pro and every time I run Unity without administrator privileges Visual Studio tools don't work. Visual Studio opens correctly but debug doesn't work and the "Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Unity 2.1.0.0 enabled" is not shown in the "Help - About Unity" menu.

Restarting Unity with admin privileges helps, but it's really annoying and it took me forever to figure out why Visual Studio tools don't work.

 

Bump.
I think if app needs admin privileges to run correctly, it should ask for admin privileges instead of silently breaking the functionality. I think it makes sense to open a bug report.

 

This is still an issue which is having a serious effect on our workflow at the university where we work. Our students naturally aren't given admin rights, which is hereby making it impossible for them to use Visual Studio Tools for Unity.

 

Hi folks,

This is an issue in the VSTU setup. We've fixed it internally for our next release.

There's a workaround in the meantime. The registry for the user should have the key:

Code (CSharp):

1. Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
2.  
3. [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Tools for Unity]
4. "UnityExtensionPath"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Unity\\2015\\Editor\\SyntaxTree.VisualStudio.Unity.Bridge.dll"
5.  
6.  

This will allow Unity to detect the VSTU installation and load it.

 

Great, thanks jbevain! I came to the same conclusion through some personal research, and was just about to come back and share it when you posted. Good to know you've identified the issue and we won't have to worry about it in the future.