Finally, the top-secret, classified information that Intuit doesn't want you to know! Here's how to run QuickBooks without administrator privileges:
Give Full Control to the Users group for the following:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MediaProperties\PrivateP roperties\Joystick\Winmm HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Tracing HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Intuit HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT (yes, the entire hive)
Also give "Modify" access to the Users group for
Program Files\Intuit
That's it! That's what Intuit is too lazy to do on its own in the installation program, or too lazy to fix in the program itself somehow. I have had two clients running it successfully with no users as local administrators for many months now. Now it can be told; I hope this helps some of you on the front lines.