I just decided to give the downloader a try and can't get it to work nicely at all.

First up, could you get it to prompt for admin credentials when it tries to run the installers? - I'm on XP and having to run the downloader as admin all the time is just a bad idea.

Maybe the account you are using is not with admin rights. Can't really give any other solution as I am on Win7.

That's odd, I've never found that problem before, but my PC has Win7 64-bit.
Can you edit or create a shortcut to the downloader to run it as admin?

Now that you mention it. Try right clicking on the shortcut then on properties. Somewhere in there might be a checkbox with "Run in Admin mode"or something like that.
EDIT: Just checked my theory on my XP machine. I couldn't find such thing. Except making an account with administrative rights my help stops here, I am sorry.

oops wrong thread

Don't most Windows programs require to be installed with an admin account?

Sorry, didn't realize, I guess one must log in as an administrator?

It does have "Run As..." (shift+right-click, pick item in menu), but you have to provide logon credentials for the administrator user yourself.

Okay, here's a possible workaround. I take it you already managed to make the gogdownloader URL protocol work with a limited user account. In case you need help with that as well, just ask.

To make the downloader start with administrator rights each time your limited user logs on:

Disable the built-in option to run GOG Downloader on startup.

Log on as the user you want the downloader to start automatically for. Create a new shortcut (right click on Desktop -> New -> Shortcut). In the target field, type

%windir%\system32\runas.exe /user:YOUR_ADMIN_USER_NAME_HERE /savecred "C:\Program Files\GOG.com\GOG.com Downloader.exe"

Replace YOUR_ADMIN_USER_NAME_HERE with the name of an account with administrator rights, and change the path to the GOG.com Downloader if you picked a non-default folder when you installed it.

Copy or move this shortcut to Start Menu -> All Programs -> Startup.

The next time you log on, you will see a console window that asks you for the password to the administrator account you provided in the shortcut. You will only need to enter it once.

Thanks all for your replies :)

I did indeed get everything running as a limited user, bar the auto-install. Just figured the GOG guys could get it to pop up a elevation prompt as most installers do. :)

I really don't like things running as admin when they don't need to be, so I'd prefer to keep the downloader running as my account and just prompt when installing. With that in mind, I think I'll go with rawmilk905's suggestion and settle for turning off auto-install. Thanks all though!

You're welcome. :)