I was trying to install SQL Server Express so I wouldn't have to connect to our dev database, but ran into the dreaded "Setup account privileges" issue (image above, I think). If you're having this problem installing SQL Server Express, I can't guarantee that you're going to get great news here, but this is how you'd fix it if you could...

You can open the Local Security Policy interface (or the Group Policy editor) and add the permissions you're missing from there, but the buttons to add to the ones I needed were disabled for me, even though I'm an admin on my box.

This is apparently known as the HasSecurityBackupAndDebugPrivilegesCheck rule.

The best "how to nuke this issue" I found was from this kb article from MS:

To work around this issue, run the following command at an elevated command prompt to set explicit permissions of the SeBackupPrivilege user right for the msiserver service:

C:\Windows\system32>sc privs msiserver SeTcbPrivilege/SeCreatePagefilePrivilege/SeLockMemoryPrivilege/SeIncreaseBasePriorityPrivilege/SeCreatePermanentPrivilege/SeAuditPrivilege/SeSecurityPrivilege/SeChangeNotifyPrivilege/SeProfileSingleProcessPrivilege/SeImpersonatePrivilege/SeCreateGlobalPrivilege/SeAssignPrimaryTokenPrivilege/SeRestorePrivilege/SeIncreaseQuotaPrivilege/SeShutdownPrivilege/SeTakeOwnershipPrivilege/SeLoadDriverPrivilege/SeBackupPrivilege

Now that'll do it. Well, unless you can't.

I can't.

C:\Windows\system32>whoami /priv

PRIVILEGES INFORMATION

Privilege Name           Description                        State  
==============           ===========                        ========  
SeIncreaseQuotaPrivilege Adjust memory quotas for a process Disabled
SeSecurityPrivilege      Manage auditing and security log   Disabled
...
SeBackupPrivilege Back up files and directories Disabled
...

Argh. Oh well. It's always a little painful when you have enough power to really get your box into trouble, which I do, but then you can't install something that'd actually help you do your job, making things better for everyone. /sigh But if I could've installed Express, that's how I could've fixed the SeDebugPrivilege, SeBackupPrivilege, etc issue.

(Note that using ntrights is apparently the wrong answer on Windows 7. `'ntrights' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.')

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