Stuck with Visual Studio 2010 in Administrator (elevated) Mode

Question

There are many posts that tell you how to run Visual Studio 2010 as Administrator.
I will probably be very ashamed when I find my answer but...
My problem is that I can't start Visual Studio NOT elevated!

I always have the "(Administrator)" text on the title.
I want to be able to debug my application in a non-elevated environment.

I have no shortcut/application file that is marked with "Run As Administrator".
Not Devenv.exe and not VSLauncher.exe not shortcuts at Start Menu.. nothing is marked like this and still Visual Studio runs as Administrator.

My user belongs to the local Administrators group.. but that didn't use to enable this administrator mode.
UAC is disabled but this too didn't matter once.

Also checked

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers

and removed Visual Studio from the list. Nothing.

Any idea will be appreciated.

Faintheart

Hard to guess, you've eliminated the obvious ways. Maybe you'll see something in a trace you get from SysInternals' ProcMon utility. – Localism

what happens if you run devenv from the VS command prompt? Do you get a uac consent dialog? – Favata

Answer 1

I turned UAC back on and what a surprise... Visual Studio runs in normal mode again!
Thanks again Microsoft, for making things very clear...

Faintheart

Could you clarify how to turn UAC back on? I am stuck in Admin mode as well – Headquarters

windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/… – Faintheart

thanks for that... this solution did not work for me – Headquarters

You have to restart your computer. Also, did you try any of the other options I listed in my question? – Faintheart

My UAC was already on. I've checked regedit and even installed VSCommands.. my account isn't an admin account but the application always starts in admin mode – Headquarters

Make sure the shortcut and executables are not set to run elevated.. It must be one of these. I've scoured the net when I had this problem, the list here is quite exhaustive – Faintheart

I love Microsoft for making me waste 45 minutes for this! – Ostracism

Answer 2

You can try downloading VSCommands extension and using its Debug As Normal user feature.

Clerihew

Answer 3

WINDOWS 11 update:

To open Visual Studio / Rider always in admin mode, follow these steps:

Concern

sorry, but this has nothing to do with this question.. way to go for resurrecting a 10 years old post though! haha – Faintheart

When I searched for the same problem, I saw first this post, then I resolved my problem. Hence I'm sharing this post so that others who are also landing on this post can easily see it. What's your motivation that makes you think that a solution shouldn't be shared here @JonyAdamit ? – Concern

Well, because the first thing StackOverflow is asking you to do, is to fully read the question, determine what is it asking for, and to make sure your answer provides that. A more appropriate way would be to write your own question and answer it, or find an existing question that matches your answer.. @alper-ebicoglu – Faintheart