Hi,
I wanted to compose tonight, and this is the message that pops up when I try to open Cubase 14 Pro. Is this a joke??? I reinstalled Cubase 14 Pro via the Steinberg Download Assistant… and nothing. I can’t even access the Cubase hub. It’s incomprehensible and particularly infuriating. Anyone else in this situation?
Thanks,
Greg
What was it that prompted you to reinstall Cubase?
Have you opened SAM to see the status of your authorisation?
Or, similarly, have you logged on to you account to check the status of your authorisation?
Run the Steinberg Activation Manager on your computer and activate the license.
I’ve installed, uninstalled, and reinstalled Steinberg Activation Manager several times, but when I double-click on it, NOTHING happens. It doesn’t open. I saw somewhere that this was related to the elicenser, so I reconnected my old elicenser USB key and tried to repair/update it. Without success (see screenshots). And yet my license definitely exists!
It’s nothing to do with elicenser.
Start from a freshly rebooted computer and try to run Steinberg Download Assistant as an administrator and then download and install SAM from within SDA.
I didn’t know you could download Steinberg Activation Manager from within the Download Assistant!!! In fact, I can’t find it in the list…
Well, it finally works. I didn’t reboot my computer, but everything’s fine now. I don’t understand what could have happened…
You should never install any user application as Administrator, that is causing all kinds of extra trouble.
Steinberg Download Assistant automatically installs and maintains the Activation and Library Manager. It is enough to have the SDA on the latest release, it will install the latest releases of SAM and Library Manager, if available, when it is started.
The Download Assistant is automatically installed by the Download Assistant, when you start the SDA and it finds a new release.
Why exactly? Surely running an installer as administrator is simply making sure no permissions issues is blocking install, the actual installed program won’t be any different than if it was installed as normal user.
Because you are bypassing every security mechanism that Windows provides.
Exactly this is the biggest issue at all. There is no more security for writing to directories and files you should never touch, including Windows itself.
Yes it will have a big impact. There are many files that are now owned by the Administrator and that forces you to run applications as Administrator, because otherwise they can not add or modify new files or directories. The destination is now owned by the System Administrator.
Here are some sites for you to read.
I’d like to point out that in Windows, there are important distinctions between the built-in “Administrator” account and standard user accounts that are members of the “Administrators” group. The “Administrator” account should only be used in exceptional cases and otherwise hidden. However, using the computer logged to a regular account with administrative privileges is usually unproblematic, at least for experienced users.
Correct, that is what UAC (User Access Control) does. The user has the ability to increase permissions during the installation to Local Admin rights, which is usually recognized by the Popup Box, during the Installation, asking for Admin privileges.
But the Steinberg installer will write to the same locations whether you run as admin or not and no they are not installing to directories or files you should never touch or permanently setting those locations as admin access only. It might be problematic in some cases and certainly don’t do it with sources you don’t completely trust but with SDA/SAM I don’t see it being an issue
I scanned your sites but they are both about business users not having their own admin accounts for security reasons….really not the same as allowing one installer to run as admin on your personal machine.
The difference is who finally owns these locations. If they are owned by the Admin a user can not touch them anymore.
Yes, they do. All applications that are installed on a Windows machine install in restricted areas, like
C:\Program Files
C:\Program Files(x86)
C:\Program Data
The applications also write to C:\Users\\AppData and if the installation is done as Admin you are writing to the AppData of the Admin. This folder and the three subfolders are usually even hidden from the Explorer display.
So you think a personal machine does not need security? Private users are one of the biggest loopholes in security, because due to ignorance of the consequences and missing knowledge what can happen.
A private user that installs everything as administrator opens his machine to the world of scam and malware and what else is floating through the net.
Yes, but doing a right-click and “Run as Administrator” does this too - it pops up with a UAC prompt. If the installer was going to ask for the UAC prompt anyway it doesn’t make any practical difference, and Cubase needs elevated permissions to install so it would display the prompt. I assume this is what the person did. They did it needlessly because it is smart enough to pop up with a UAC prompt on its own, but no harm done.
It is completely different from installing the program while logged in as Administrator.
Absolutely right, but the recommendation was to install as Administrator, which means to me, login as Admin and install it. This is what should never been done.
The normal and correct process is to launch the installer as ordinary user and let the installer ask for the higher permissions when needed. That makes sure all files get the permissions they need later for normal use.
When you click “Run as Administrator”, Windows does NOT automatically switch to the built-in “Administrator” account. Instead, it:
No it wasn’t, the recommendation was to “run Steinberg Download Assistant” as an administrator.
I have always run Windows using a non-privileged personal account, i.e. an account which is not a member of the local Administrators group. I install software while logged in with that account. When an installer requires administrative privileges, it asks (specifically) for the Administrator local account password, so of course the installation runs under the local Administrator account. No properly-written software has any problem with this, nor should it.
