Installing Cursor with User Setup to Avoid Admin Privileges

Discussions
1

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to install Cursor on my Windows machine, but I need to do it without admin privileges, ideally with a “user setup” option. Unfortunately, I don’t have administrative rights on my computer and can’t modify system-wide directories.

Does anyone have experience installing Cursor as a standard user? Perhaps there’s a portable version or a workaround that allows installation without requiring admin access?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

1 Like
2

I have installed with a user setup and am not able to install extensions.

3

Hey, are you getting any errors?

4

Yes. The error I am getting is:
The editor could not be opened due to an unexpected error. Please consult the log for more details.

5

Try a few steps to fix this problem:

  1. Install the User Setup version:
    • Make sure to download the version labeled “User Setup”, not “System Setup”
    • It installs to your user folder and doesn’t require admin rights
    • This is especially important if you’re on a corporate machine with restrictions

You can download the latest version here: Download · Cursor

  1. If it doesn’t start after installation:

    • Try launching with the flag cursor --disable-extensions
    • This helps check if an extension is causing the issue

  2. Settings conflicts:

    • Temporarily rename the settings folder
    • It’s located at: %APPDATA%\Cursor

  3. Access issues:

    • Check if you have write permissions to the working folders
    • This is often the cause in corporate environments

  4. Error logs:

    • Check the logs, they usually point to the exact reason

Let me know if any of these solutions helped.

6

I have the usersetup installed. My issue is that I am unable to install any extensions. I don’t see a settings folder in my installation.

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7

Check if you have this folder at the following path. If it’s missing, create it manually:

%USERPROFILE%\.cursor\extensions

8

I do seem to have this folder.

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9

Try fully reinstalling Cursor by deleting two folders:

%APPDATA%\Cursor
%USERPROFILE%\.cursor