Does the SayIntentions.AI app have to run as Administrator? Why?

Yes, it must run as Administrator.

While the app technically doesn't need elevated privileges to function, we've found that forcing it to run as Administrator dramatically reduces support cases. The primary reason appears to be microphone access — some antivirus and anti-malware software silently block microphone input for non-admin apps, causing users to think the app is broken.

Additionally, the SayIntentions.AI app writes to the Community folder constantly — for injecting objects, taxi paths, traffic, and more. This behavior tends to fail without elevated permissions, leading to corrupted scenery, missing objects, or traffic not appearing correctly.

We agree this is unfortunate and believe it's a fundamental design flaw in Windows and how Microsoft (and third-party AV vendors) handle device access permissions. If this frustrates you, we encourage you to reach out to Microsoft directly.

So, even though it shouldn’t be necessary, running the app as Administrator is currently the only way we know of to ensure everything just works.