Nothing can ruin a planned night of gaming like a PC that’s being uncooperative. All you want to do is sit down, enjoy a bit of Xbox Game Pass action and entertain yourself. Unfortunately, you can’t, because you’re trying to install the latest hit title (perhaps Halo Infinite) but you keep getting an error that says, “Administrator approval required for installation.”
Big pain, right?
Fortunately, there seems to be a fairly simple workaround for this issue that has been helping your fellow gamers out for the better part of a year. You don’t have to be a Windows wiz to set it up. All you have to do is learn a few very easy Windows tricks.
You’re already the administrator, right?
Before you do anything else, ensure the Windows account you’re using is indeed an administrator account. If it isn’t, you can just stop right here because the error you’re getting makes perfect sense. Without that power, of course you can’t install apps or games willy nilly. Log out and log back in to an administrator account. Try installing something then and see if it works.
If you still have the issue, it’s time to get tricky
First off, credit for this fix goes to Reddit user twpion. Good on you for cracking the code of the “Administrator approval required for installation” error.
According to twpion, the first thing you’ll want to do is click on the Start menu, then copy and paste the following: Start > Run shell:AppsFolder
This will open the hidden app folder inside Windows.
Once that folder is open, find the Xbox app inside it and place the app into the Windows taskbar.
Now you’ll want to hold CTRL+SHIFT and click on the Xbox icon you just moved to the taskbar. This will start the Xbox app in administrator mode.
You should be able to install the game you want with no further issues. But just to be sure, before you start the game for the first time, right click it and choose the option that allows you to create a desktop shortcut. Then right click on that desktop icon for the game and run it as an administrator.
Does this work for you?
If you’re getting the “Administrator approval required for installation” error, hopefully this provides you with a fix. I’ve not ever run into this issue myself, but I know it’s not uncommon — especially among those who have their hearts set on using Xbox Game Pass on PC.
Should you find this fix doesn’t work, however, I’d love to know about it so I can research additional options and put them into this article. If you can’t the install games or apps you want on your Windows 10 PC and the above trick is a no-go, leave a comment and I’ll dig into it.
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