Unable to start PI server on Window 7: access denied

With Vista, Windows 2008, and now Windows 7, the UAC (user access control) layer gets in the way of manually starting a OSISoft PI server’s services because of privileges. If you open a command prompt (Run and CMD) from a standard user account, then fire off the C:\PI\adm\PISrvStart.bat command, you will receive an access denied error 5 for each Net Start command within the batch procedure.

To get around this, find the Command Prompt under Start > All Programs > Accessories and right click on it, then select ‘Run as Administrator’. Proceed to run the c:\PI\adm\PISrvStart.bat command as before and it should work correctly and start each of the Windows Services related to PI.