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Error 2503 - cc-switch MSI install permission denied

Quick fix

Run msiexec from an administrator command prompt, or download the Portable build, to work around the Windows 11 MSI permission restriction.

Symptom

Section titled “Symptom”
Error output
Error 2503 (Windows Installer permission denied)

Cause

Section titled “Cause”

On Windows 11, double-clicking a .msi installer can trigger Error 2503 through insufficient permissions. Windows does not offer "Run as administrator" in the right-click menu for .msi files by default, so there is no ordinary graphical route to elevate the install.

Fix

Section titled “Fix”

  1. Press Win + S to open search, type cmd, find "Command Prompt" in the results, right-click it, and choose "Run as administrator".

  2. In the administrator command line, run the installer with msiexec (replace the path with your actual file path, and wrap it in double quotes in case of spaces): msiexec /i "C:\yourpath\CC-Switch-v3.16.5-Windows.msi"

  3. Alternatively, download the Portable.zip build, unpack it to a local directory, and run cc-switch.exe directly, bypassing install permissions entirely.

Affected Versions

Section titled “Affected Versions”
Toolcc-switch
Version3.16.3 - 3.16.5
PlatformsWindows

Source Issues

Section titled “Source Issues”

This page is distilled from 3 real issues

FAQ

Section titled “FAQ”
Why is there no "Run as administrator" option when right-clicking a .msi file on Windows?
That is the Windows default: .msi (Microsoft Installer) files do not carry that right-click menu option.
Section titled “Related problems”
Symlink target not found: .DirIcon broken symlink causes - CC SwitchAppImage install fails due to broken .DirIcon symlink. Fix by converting it to a relative path.2 issues mergedversion `GLIBC_2.35' not foundThe official AppImage needs a newer GLIBC. On RHEL/Rocky Linux, use the community Flatpak build or one built on an older base image.2 issues mergedThis software does not run on macOSRun `brew update` and retry the install, or download the DMG from GitHub Releases and install it by hand.2 issues merged

This is an unofficial community wiki with no affiliation to the cc-switch authors or the project itself. Its content is compiled from the project's public GitHub issues. This site distributes no software.