I did the following to get my v41 emulator to work on windows 8.1. I just copied the entire install directory from my windows xp system over to my windows 8.1 desktop. Now I can run without administrator with no problem.
Here is a directory listing of my install:
Directory of C:\Users\Ron\Desktop\V41
10/22/2014 05:17 PM <DIR> .
10/22/2014 05:17 PM <DIR> ..
10/02/2007 08:12 AM 76,078 Back.bmp
02/21/2012 07:29 AM 41,722 Help.txt
10/02/2007 08:10 AM 62 HP-41C.lod
10/02/2007 08:10 AM 24 HP-41CV.lod
10/22/2014 05:17 PM 16,780 HP-41CX.lod
06/19/2009 07:52 AM 37,069 Index.txt
10/02/2007 08:12 AM 180,478 Large.bmp
10/02/2007 08:09 AM 22,016 LCD.fon
10/02/2007 08:09 AM 93,640 LCD4.ttf
10/02/2007 08:10 AM 18,847 License.txt
10/02/2007 08:12 AM 107,462 Medium.bmp
10/22/2014 05:16 PM <DIR> MOD
10/22/2014 05:16 PM <DIR> RAW
10/02/2007 08:12 AM 65,314 Small.bmp
10/02/2007 08:12 AM 31,272 Tiny.bmp
10/20/2014 11:20 PM 121,912 Uninst.isu
02/20/2012 10:54 PM 167,936 V41.exe
15 File(s) 980,612 bytes