To add to what Labob has said, I sometimes find it necessary to run an application with elevated credentials ("Run as Administrator") so that it can perform some housekeeping task that running as a non-administrator won't get done. Problem comes in when the application predates the whole UAC thing in Windows and has no way of telling Windows it needs elevation to administrator. When you run as administrator, it completes it's necessary housekeeping (saving settings in the registry or whatever) and from then on it's fine with running as a normal user.
Moral of the story:
If an older program was just installed and it's failing, or failing after an update, run it as Administrator and see if it doesn't magically work fine. After that first time, try to run normal. Still working okay? You're good to go (till it borks out again, then just run as administrator again,) or if not, right-click the exe and set to "Run as Administrator." Note that if you set to run that way, you will always have to approve the elevation using the dim-screen/UAC dialog. Unless, of course, you have disabled UAC altogether. Please DON'T do that. That's like saying "to hell with the condom, she's on the pill." Stupid, stupid, stupid... (not always, but if you don't know who/what your dealing with, could be some bad side effects, right?)