A client called recently regarding the failure of AutoCAD 2007 to launch on a Windows 7 domain connected PC when a new user logged on for the first time. AutoCAD 2007 would not start and the app would display a message about compatibility issues and then nothing else would happen. Checking with task manager there was no entry for acad.exe so it wasn’t that the app was starting but not displaying anything. On checking I discovered that I had dealt with this problem before and that the solution was permissions based.
It appears that the user launching AutoCAD 2007 needs to be a local administrator on the machine. Once set the user needed to log off and on and launch the app again. Even though the same message re compatibility is shown – continuing running the app and you will see an installation screen automatically start and finish before the app finally loads. Seems that its doing some additional setup for the new user.
Once finished – close the app – launch again and select the checkbox to not see the compatibility screen again.
YMMV – but this got the client up and working with the legacy version of AutoCAD that they purchased some time ago.