We have identified a problem that can prevent Finale from running as administrator properly on Windows. Running Finale as an administrator is necessary in order for Finale to authorize, and sometimes you may find that, after right-clicking the Finale icon (anywhere but the taskbar), selecting Run as administrator, and clicking Authorize Now (or Help > Authorize Finale), you are met with the following error message...
If this happens to you, please follow the steps below to repair a small part of your registry and allow Finale to properly run as administrator.
Fixing the registry
- Close any open programs.
- Download the FinaleAuthCleanup.reg attachment at the bottom of this article.
- Open your Downloads folder and double-click the FinaleAuthCleanup.reg file.
- You will be presented with a message asking if you would like to use the unknown software (as depicted below), choose Run.
- You will then see a User Account Control message asking if you would like to allow the Registry Editor to make changes to your computer, choose Yes.
- You will then see a warning message about editing the registry (as depicted below), choose Yes.
Once you have completed the process, you will see a dialog box saying that the keys have been successfully added to the registry. Click OK to close that message and then try right-clicking and running Finale as administrator once more to authorize the program.