Administrator account no longer has admin privileges

[MattCowen]

Bit of help please.

 

Just had a teacher bring in his home machine (Vista Home Basic) saying he can't install anything as he doesn't have the rights.

 

I have a look, there is only 1 user account and it has administrator level settings but I can't access event viewer, computer management, all give the same message "Windows cannot access the specified device you may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item"

 

I'm stumped, any ideas ?

 

PS. Booted to BartPE and run virus scan - nothing found.

[FN-GM]

If you have Winternals you can fix it with that.

[MattCowen]

Thanks, a bit more info would help, I'd like to get him off my back as quickly as possible so I can get some proper work done.

[FN-GM]

Winternals is a bootable disc. It will allow you to manage user accounts without being booted into windows. I have an ISO if your interested?

[neilmc]

Backup all his files, and upgrade to XP

[krisd32]

say its gonna cost him! he'll soon stop bothering you then!

[ngreenwood]

This is most likely caused by elevation in Vista. In Vista even administrator users run as normal users. Then when an admin task is required the user gets elevated to admin rights through UAC. Check the Local Security Policies > Do No Prompt for Elevation is set to disabled (I think).

[Bromcom_John]

Vista ships with a built in Administrator account in addition to the base user account. However it is hidden by default.

It is essentially this account and this account alone which has full administrator privileges. Give any other account the admin privileges and all you actually accomplish is an account that just nags and nags whenever you want to actually do anything admin related.

It will let you, but it will still nag.

 

To turn the administrator account on so you can see it and use it, follow the instructions available by google search.

Frankly this is probably the most annoying thing I have found about Vista, Microsofts desire to create an OS that tries to micro manage your Windows experience.

Hopefully it;s something they will address with Windows 7

 

I've included an example of one activation method below

 

Detailed Instructions to activate the Administrator

 

Logon to Vista using your normal username and password.

Click on the Start button

Click on Start Search.

Type, cmd.

Right-click cmd, select 'Run as administrator' from the shortcut menu.

In the black 'DOS box', type the following at the command line:

Net help user

The idea of the last command is just to observe the options for Net User. In particular, examine the syntax to set the password.

The next instruction is the crucial command. I have chosen password = p£ssworD, you may want to choose different characters.

Net user administrator p£ssw0rd

Net user administrator /active:yes

Check the message : The command completed successfully

Switch User, or logoff

Logon as Administrator Password p£ssw0rD (Your password may be different!)

Trap1: There should be no space between the word 'active' and the colon.

 

/active :yes is wrong.

/active:yes is correct.

 

 

Trap2: You need a forward slash before /active

 

Net user administrator active:yes is wrong

Net user administrator /active:yes is correct

 

Thanks to Rob Hilton for pointing out this trap.

 

Trapx: Pay close attention to the command, it should be active, not activate.

[Bromcom_John]

This is most likely caused by elevation in Vista. In Vista even administrator users run as normal users. Then when an admin task is required the user gets elevated to admin rights through UAC. Check the Local Security Policies > Do No Prompt for Elevation is set to disabled (I think).

 

Oh God.. I hate the UAC!! Turn it off. It's what I'd do.

 

ps. I would recommend none of this for a PC that will sit in the public domain. Your home pc (or the teachers personal laptop) are different animals.

[FN-GM]

I dont use Windows Vista UAC as its a pain. With Windows 7 its allot better and doesn't pester as much so i leave it on.

[the_one_that_cant]

I recently had a simmilar problem to this.

 

I had to reregister a dll file, and once that was done, it worked a charm.

 

I will try to find it out for you.

 

I think this is the daddy

 

regsvr32 msxml3.dll

[Oops_my_bad]

I'd like to get him off my back as quickly as possible so I can get some proper work done.

Just tell him as it's a personal laptop you have tried your best endeavours and you are not obliged to repair it. Good day

[Michael]

JohnCondon is spot on. Vista has administrator accounts and real administrator accounts. His guide will provide true administrator access, however the whole point/purpose/theory is to stop viruses/spyware or similar spreading as easily as they would with Windows 2000 or Windows XP for example.

 

Windows Vista is more 'hardened' than XP, but with security comes annoyance and frustration. Microsoft should really completely re-design their OS instead of trying to bodge a solution to the problem.