Windows 11 August 2025 security update is causing unintended UAC prompts to appear for non-admin users — some apps are crashing
Windows 11's latest security update can wreak some havoc, but there are workarounds.
Microsoft's latest August 2025 security update is wreaking havoc on non-admin users across several versions of Windows 10 and 11, preventing app installations from occurring in certain cases. Microsoft states that the August security update, meant to protect users from a privilege escalation vulnerability, is now causing unexpected UAC prompts to occur for non-admin users.
The security vulnerability that started this whole mess is CVE-2025-50173. This elevation of privilege vulnerability specifically exploits weak authentication capabilities in the Windows Installer, allowing attackers to elevate user privileges locally.
Microsoft patched this vulnerability with its latest round of August 2025 security updates, which allegedly incorporates new UAC prompts in various situations, making UAC more strict than it was before. However, this change has also introduced an unintended side effect of pushing UAC prompts for administrator rights onto standard users in some scenarios.
Microsoft shared scenarios in which this issue can arise: Running MSI (Microsoft Installer) repair commands, launching Autodesk applications, installing apps that configure themselves per user, running Windows Installer during Active Setup, deploying packages with ConfigMgr that rely on user-specific "advertising" configurations, and enabling secure desktop can all trigger a UAC prompt to appear requesting admin rights.
Error messages can also occur. Standard (non-admin) users who run an app that triggers MSI's (Microsoft Installer) repair operation, with commands such as "msiexec /fu" without displaying a UI, will fail with an error message. Running Office Professional Plus 2010 as a standard user will also fail with error code 1730 during the configuration process.
This issue is affecting virtually all builds of Windows 11, Windows 10, their respective Enterprise versions, and Windows Server, dating all the way back to Windows Server 2012.
Until there is a proper fix, there are two workarounds you can take advantage of if the UAC UI is not appearing; Microsoft recommends running problematic apps as Administrator. The easiest way to do this is to right-click the app you want to run and select "Run as administrator. For systems in a professional setting, IT admins can configure a special group policy known as Known Issue Rollback (KIR), which will remove the buggy UAC prompts altogether.
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Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.
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TechieTwo Another day in the Windows abuse world. Their code is so poor they can't even update it without user issues. They'll raise the price to make it all "better"... :frowning:Reply -
salgado18 Maybe they should employ more AI coders to fix the errors introduced by their current AI coders...Reply
Seriously, Windows wasn't that critically bugged before this AI trend. -
johnnycanadian Exactly why are the majority of users still employing Windows? I can understand it for some very specific CAD/Analysis tools, but Linux or MacOS are far superior environments for the vast majority of people. Gaming, maybe? However I cannot imagine a game so good that it would convince me to reload that mess of user tracking, data collection and malware on any system.Reply -
JeffreyP55 Reply
The plethora of software is a huge reason why Windows is still popular. Linux is still a niche OS. Most people want simplicity, ease of use. I am not a gamer, but love building fast PC's as another hobby of mine.johnnycanadian said:Exactly why are the majority of users still employing Windows? I can understand it for some very specific CAD/Analysis tools, but Linux or MacOS are far superior environments for the vast majority of people. Gaming, maybe? However I cannot imagine a game so good that it would convince me to reload that mess of user tracking, data collection and malware on any system. -
USAFRet Reply
The majority of people buy a new PC and use what OS comes with it.johnnycanadian said:Exactly why are the majority of users still employing Windows? I can understand it for some very specific CAD/Analysis tools, but Linux or MacOS are far superior environments for the vast majority of people. Gaming, maybe? However I cannot imagine a game so good that it would convince me to reload that mess of user tracking, data collection and malware on any system.
Windows.
Most people do not build and install whatever OS they want.
And even of those that do build their own, Windows is the usual. Games, etc. -
JamesJones44 Gotta love a security path that is so problematic Microsoft recommends pushing all your security concerns aside and just run all your apps as administrator... Fixed!Reply -
JamesJones44 Replyjohnnycanadian said:Exactly why are the majority of users still employing Windows? I can understand it for some very specific CAD/Analysis tools, but Linux or MacOS are far superior environments for the vast majority of people. Gaming, maybe? However I cannot imagine a game so good that it would convince me to reload that mess of user tracking, data collection and malware on any system.
Because most people after a certain age can't stand the thought of change. They know Windows, they know it sucks, but they don't have to learn something new! -
Alvar "Miles" Udell People who run unprivelaged accounts on their personal computers for security reasons will have to deal with prompts anyway, and people who run unprivelaged accounts on work computers SHOULD have to deal with IT anyway when it comes to installing or changing things as part of proper security protocol.Reply
Most people on their personal PCs though are going to be running administrator Microsoft accounts and not local unprivelaged accounts, so this is unlikely to affect a large number of users. -
Alvar "Miles" Udell ReplyUSAFRet said:The majority of people buy a new PC and use what OS comes with it.
Windows.
Most people do not build and install whatever OS they want.
And even of those that do build their own, Windows is the usual. Games, etc.
Most people will also scream bloody murder about Microsoft and how Linux is better and they can't believe people still use Windows, yet run only Windows on their computers. -
USAFRet Reply
I invite you to do a poll here.johnnycanadian said:Exactly why are the majority of users still employing Windows? I can understand it for some very specific CAD/Analysis tools, but Linux or MacOS are far superior environments for the vast majority of people. Gaming, maybe? However I cannot imagine a game so good that it would convince me to reload that mess of user tracking, data collection and malware on any system.
What OS do you use, and why?
This community here is far geekier than the majority of computer users.