I can't install my software. I get a message saying "only power users may install software" or "access denied," or "you are not authorised to perform this action"  or "only Administrators may install prism" or "unable to save serial number file".

This is a message from your operating system and you must log in as a "power user" or"administrator" to do powerful things, like installing software.

 Windows 2000/NT/XP/Vista/Windows 7:

When you start Windows, you have a choice of login names (accounts). You can only install software if you log in with an account with admin rights. This is a fundamental part of Windows security. You may need to get help from your IT department.

If you get the message that only an administrator can Install Prism, even after logging in with admin rights, try this:

1. Right-click on the Prism icon.
2. Choose "Run as administrator".

This should only be required the first time you run Prism.

 Step 1: Make sure you are logged in as an admin.

1. Open system Preferences from the Apple menu.

2. Select Accounts.

3. Make sure that the check box "allow user to administer this computer" is checked (in the accounts panel).

4. If it is not checked, you will need to log in as Administrator.

Step 2: Repair any damaged disk permissions.

• Run the Disk  Utility located at: "[system disk]:Applications:Utilities:Disk Utility"
• Once inside the Disk Utility window, select the drive, then go to the First Aid tab and then click the Repair Disk Permissions button. Be sure to choose your hard drive, not the program CD or DMG 'drive'.
• Disk permissions problems are common in Macs, so this is something you should do routinely.
• After repairing permissions, reboot your computer, as that solves lots of weird problems.

Step 3: Make sure path name does not include international characters (Prism 4 only, not a problem with Prism 5)

• Make sure that the path to the Prism application and the path to the "[system disk]:Library:Application Support", does not contain any special symbols for example, Japanese characters in system disk name.

Step 4: Check that folder "[system disk]:Library:Application Support" is not write protected. To do this:

• Find this folder select it, click Command-i to open folder Info dialog. Or control-click and choose Get Info.

• Select Sharing in the "Show " pop up menu.

• The privileges should be set to "Read and Write".

• If the privileges are wrong, try to reset them in that dialog.

• If you can't change them, then use the following steps to change them.

Step 5: If the privileges of the application support folder are wrong, and you can't fix them with Get Info, use the following Unix terminal commands instead. If you haven't used Terminal before, try to get help from a Mac guru.

 1. Run "Terminal" from "[system volume]/Applications/Utilities

 2. In Terminal, type:

3. When prompted, type the admin's pasword (same as in the authentification dialog, which appears in installer) and press Enter.

4. Quit Terminal

5. Launch Prism

Step 6: If the message is coming from the installer (and not Prism itself), send us the installation log. 

1. Before closing the "Install GraphPad Prism 5" window, select Window -> Installer Log.
2. In the "Installer Log" window, choose "Show All Logs" in the drop down on the left side of toolbar.
3. Select Edit -> Select All, then Copy.
4. Paste into an email sent to support at graphpad dot com.

Mac OS 8-9: (Prism 3 or 4; Prism 5 requires OSX)

Try to create "Normal" user account.

1. Go to the Apple menu -> Control Panel -> Multiple Users.

2. Click the New User button in the Multiple Users window.

3. Select Normal user in the opened window.

4. Make sure to select On for Multiple Users Accounts in the Multiple Users window.

5. Restart the computer.