Administrator rights?

[Freeley]

Hi all.

When i set up my user account after switching on for the first time i did it as the administrator.
However i'm finding that whenever i'm trying to do certain things like immunizing in spybot and installing/altering programs i'm getting system messages telling me i'm not the administrator and don't have administrative rights. Usually by clicking on the message it allows me to carry on but with spybot it refuses to allow me.

I've checked my user account settings and i am set as the administrator so i'm a bit confused as to what's going on.
Can anyone shed any light on this for me please?

Cheers.

 

[LFFPicard]

It is most likely the User Access Control you are talking about.

The easiest way to turn this off is go to Control Panel -> Users
Edit your user and you should see on the bottom if i remember a link about the User Access Control, click on this and you can turn the popups off.

 

[Freeley]

Have tried adjusting this setting as you suggest LFFPicard to the lower levels (including "never notify") but it makes no difference.
The message i get when trying to immunize in spybot is "You are missing administrator rights to perform this action. If you need to do this please run this application elevated as an administrator."

Any other ideas?

 

[Tom DWC]

Enter the properties menu of your primary (C) drive and take a look under "Security" - "Advanced" then check the permissions for your user account and see if "full control" is enabled.

 

[Freeley]

OK have had a look - under the "Administrators (PC/Administrators)" tab it is already set to full control, the "Users (PC/Users)" tab was set to deny. I ticked the allow box and it tried to change various settings (nvidia boxes flashing up etc.) but came back with several error messages saying that the programs were in use.

Anything else i can do?

 

[LFFPicard]

Ok now i know what your getting at..

Close Spybot. Now right click the Spybot shortcut on the desktop for it and click run as administrator. Either that or right click -> properties and tick the run as administrator from there..
Then give it a go.

 

[pengipete]

Unfortunately, it's a widespread problem - clearly a bug in Windows 7. There's no single, simple solution but there are a few options you could look at - subject to reading the warnings that some of them can be downright dangerous. It's worth mentioning that a lot of people - myself included - have found that Windows either refuses to change the permission settings or accept them but fails to apply them to the folders.

Firstly, there are dozens of registry tweaks available on-line that are designed to reset user permissions to their default settings. They work for some people but not all and - as with any registry tweak - such a methid is wide open to abuse so don'tuse one without checking it first. If you aren't familiar with the registry, post a link to one you think might be worth trying and I'll be happy to check it. I won't be able to say it will work but I'll be able to check that it doesn't include any security threats.

There are also a number of small apps and add-ons that allow you to take full ownership of any folder. Whilst these work, they come with a huge risk as most system folders shold never be left open to change - you would effectively be leaving the door open to makware. For that reason, they must only be used for personal, user-account level folders.

I'm assuming that your installation is very new - that you haven't personalised it much or installed many program. If the problem didn't show up until after you'd been using the computer for a while, a system restore may be all that's needed. It should certainly be your first choice. If the problem appeared as soon as you installed the OS, reinstalling from scratch may be the best bet and it will certainly be less time-consuming that trying to deal with the problem one folder at a time. A couple of things that make sense but I've yet to read of them working include using Window's built-in repair options - either typing "SFC SCANNOW" in a command line or booting from the Windows DVD and using the repair option.

I did manage to get a few folders sorted manually - it involved a two step process of taking ownership, saving the settings and then going back to change the permissions but - as I said - it's a dangerous thing to do with system folders which were never meant to give even administrators full user rights. In the end, I reinstalled Windows and (touch wood) have been okay since - except for some user folders which took a bit of sorting when I moved them to another drive (all done "properly" through Windows. As far as I'm concerned, it's a problem that Microsft will have to sort with an update. I had hoped to see it in Service Pack 1 - it still may be but it's certainly not included in the version released to OEMs.

 

[Freeley]

Ok now i know what your getting at..

Close Spybot. Now right click the Spybot shortcut on the desktop for it and click run as administrator. Either that or right click -> properties and tick the run as administrator from there..
Then give it a go.

Cheers LFFPicard that has done the trick!
Will have to wait and see what else i get problems with.

 

[Freeley]

Unfortunately, it's a widespread problem - clearly a bug in Windows 7. There's no single, simple solution but there are a few options you could look at - subject to reading the warnings that some of them can be downright dangerous. It's worth mentioning that a lot of people - myself included - have found that Windows either refuses to change the permission settings or accept them but fails to apply them to the folders.

Firstly, there are dozens of registry tweaks available on-line that are designed to reset user permissions to their default settings. They work for some people but not all and - as with any registry tweak - such a methid is wide open to abuse so don'tuse one without checking it first. If you aren't familiar with the registry, post a link to one you think might be worth trying and I'll be happy to check it. I won't be able to say it will work but I'll be able to check that it doesn't include any security threats.

There are also a number of small apps and add-ons that allow you to take full ownership of any folder. Whilst these work, they come with a huge risk as most system folders shold never be left open to change - you would effectively be leaving the door open to makware. For that reason, they must only be used for personal, user-account level folders.

I'm assuming that your installation is very new - that you haven't personalised it much or installed many program. If the problem didn't show up until after you'd been using the computer for a while, a system restore may be all that's needed. It should certainly be your first choice. If the problem appeared as soon as you installed the OS, reinstalling from scratch may be the best bet and it will certainly be less time-consuming that trying to deal with the problem one folder at a time. A couple of things that make sense but I've yet to read of them working include using Window's built-in repair options - either typing "SFC SCANNOW" in a command line or booting from the Windows DVD and using the repair option.

I did manage to get a few folders sorted manually - it involved a two step process of taking ownership, saving the settings and then going back to change the permissions but - as I said - it's a dangerous thing to do with system folders which were never meant to give even administrators full user rights. In the end, I reinstalled Windows and (touch wood) have been okay since - except for some user folders which took a bit of sorting when I moved them to another drive (all done "properly" through Windows. As far as I'm concerned, it's a problem that Microsft will have to sort with an update. I had hoped to see it in Service Pack 1 - it still may be but it's certainly not included in the version released to OEMs.

Thanks pengipete, very helpful information, but most of it went over my head unfortunately!
LFFPicard's tip has solved the spybot issue so will have to see how i get on with windows with regards to other issues.