Autocad users not in local admin
Autocad users NOT in local admin error
AutoCAD 2002/2000/i requires higher user rights in Windows. You need to be a member of the (at least) Power users group. See Control panel > Administrative tools > Computer management > Users and groups.
For AutoCAD 2004 (and higher) the normal user rights are enough.
From Jürgen Hiltebrandt:
Alternatively, you can try to assign Registry permissions for full access of normal users to the following Registry hives (for AutoCAD 2002):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AutoCAD.Drawing
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AutoCAD.Drawing.15
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{8E75D913-3D21-11d2-85C4-080009A0C626}